Grandma Sally and other stuff

Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since I made a blog post. I don't think I have that many followers, and haven't gone to the extent of installing a counter or tracking visitors, so, I don't think anybody has missed me. That's not to say that I haven't had things going on in my life, just haven't really had the time to stop and think about a blog post. Regardless, the most recent unfortunate event occurred last Tuesday (9/29) when Grandma Sally Sinnreich passed away at the young age of 96. Grandma of course was greatly loved and will be missed, and I feel very lucky to have had her around as long as she was and am very glad that she was able to see her grand-kids grow up and meet her five great grand-children. I'll paste my eulogy at the end of this post. Right now, I'm just looking forward to 2009 being over.

On a lighter note, my new car is running great, and I'm enjoying every minute driving it. If anyone is in the market for a very nice car, do not overlook the Hyundai Genesis. The car has every amenity one would want in a luxury car and it costs much less.

I took Shane to see Toy Story/Toy Story 2 in 3D this weekend. I'm still trying to figure out what the point was in having these two movies in 3D. The best part of the 3D experience was the preview for "A Christmas Carol." I also thought there was supposed to be more of a sneak preview of Toy Story 3, but the only thing they showed was in the trailers, and it was the same teaser that has been shown previously and can be seen here. Considering we own the movies, this really wasn't worth the price of admission. However, Shane enjoyed it, so I suppose that makes it somewhat worth it.

I'm going back to NYC in December for the AEP CEO Roundtable. I'm considering seeing Billy Elliot, I'm just not sure about going by myself. I have not seen the movie, but I have heard many great things about the show. I figure considering I would only buy one ticket, I can take a little more time deciding.

Before going there though, we have Shane's birthday trip to Disney and the Thanksgiving cruise to celebrate Brenda's birthday.

I'm looking forward to the Panthers home opener on Saturday.

If anybody would like to join Brenda, the kids and I for the Leukemia and Lymphoma "Light the Night" walk, please visit http://pages.lightthenight.org/pb/BocaRatn09/BarCharts and sign up to be part of the team. The event takes place October 24 at 6:00 pm at the Sunset Cove Amphitheater 12551 Glades Rd. in Boca Raton.

Eulogy for Grandma:

I’ll start off by saying that Grandma lived a long happy life and it’s obvious by everyone that came in to town that she will be missed. I was trying to think of what I could say about Grandma. From my perspective she always had a story to tell, and in recent years, it always seemed to be the same story, at least to me. She always spoke about when I was a little boy in the hospital and wanted her to stay with me. I’m glad I was able to make her happy then and I can only hope that through her life I continued to make her happy. She had other stories as well, including being a member of the CRAFT club, and she always said exactly what CRAFT stood for. Unfortunately, with the kids here, I will not be able to repeat it out loud. One story that I have thought of in the last couple of days is actually a story that I never really heard from her perspective. We had just recently moved to Florida and were living in Big Pine Key when I found out that a band I wanted to see, Iron Maiden, were coming to Hollywood. Being in the Keys, and before the Internet was an option, I did not have easy access to purchase tickets. Well, Grandma went to the mall every Tuesday back then, and I asked her if she could get me tickets, which she did. I can only imagine the look on the person’s face when they saw this Grandmother buying tickets for Iron Maiden. The thought of the look alone is priceless.

I have also been thinking of stories that I didn’t hear her perspective. However, it’s just fascinating to think of the incredible amount of history that Grandma lived through. For instance, in the year that she was born, Woodrow Wilson was President and Ford began using the 1^st moving production line to produce the Model T. Throughout her life she has seen women receive the right to vote, the first coast to coast and around the world flights, television being invented, the stock market crash of 1929, the Empire State building being open, the Hindenburg, and the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. All of this occurred before she became a Mother herself in 1943. She had seen D-Day, the sound barrier being broken, the first McDonalds being open in 1955, Sputnick, Hawaii and Alaska being the 49^th and 50^th states, the first American in Space, Kennedy, the Beatles coming to America, Woodstock, Apollo 11, the first woman on the Supreme Court, the Space Shuttle, and the Berlin Wall coming down. All of these things occurred before she invested to help start BarCharts.

Through her working career, she was a nurse. Just knowing her from a Grandson’s perspective, I’m sure she made an excellent nurse. She had that cute sing-song voice that even if she got mad (which I don’t think I ever saw) her voice was just a calming influence. There were times when she would say something I didn’t necessarily agree with on one subject or another, but with that sing-song voice I couldn’t really get mad at her. I’m sure that was very calming for the patients she had to deal with, and they probably appreciated her for it. The work that I did get to see her perform was her counting skills when counting out charts to rubber band into groups of 10. She started counting when BarCharts was still in the house in the “shipping room,” which was actually my old bedroom, and continued counting until she was replaced by a machine a couple of years ago. She was happy to be able to work at BarCharts and see the company that she helped plant the seeds for grow into what it has become. She also loved the fact that she gained an additional 40+ grandchildren, and always told people that she had that many grandchildren.

All things considered, she was very lucky. She had a wonderful marriage, raised two great daughters, saw her four grandkids grow up and loved her five great-grandkids. She also gained over forty grandkids by being herself and doing what she could to help her family. Grandma lived a long and happy life, and she will be missed.