The Big, Bright, New, Silver 'Fridge

You probably think, from recent posts, that the only time I visit people is when the delivery guy shows up. That I'm a lonely woman living by myself who only gets company when a service person comes with new furniture. Or to install a water spigot for the new refrigerator.

You'd be right! (Well, I'm not a spinster and I don't live alone.) But I do like to blog these things. They're exciting, ergo...

The refrigerator arrived today!

In preparation, we moved the couch back and then the long table by the door into the hallway. (In the meanwhile, we found Jamie's college diploma, which had been missing for a year, but you don't need to know about that...)

I opened the screen door and the front door as wide as they would go, hoping it would be enough. Sweetie kept saying over and over: It's Big.

And it was. The clever Sears delivery guy came in first to eyeball it all, to see if it would work. He immediately said, "Okay, it's over. It'll never fit through here." And then he laughed. He was joking. Ha. That was our big fear about this delivery. But he seemed to know what he was doing, so I took photos and kinda relaxed.

They spent a good half hour in the street, taking off all four doors (FOUR DOORS??!) and bringing the doors in first. Then, they brought the dolly to pick up the old 'fridge. Then they finally brought the new refrigerator in. Stainless steel, wide. It looked more like a trailer than a refrigerator. I could live in it.

He gave us a little primer on how the icemaker works. It's digital!!!

He told us to dump the first 1.5 gallons of water, and the same for the first batch(es) of ice. So I spent a bit of this afternoon watering the lawn with dirty water. And now we're waiting for the fridge to get cold. It's set at 37 degrees for the top part, 0 degrees for the bottom freezer drawers. Yes, two freezer drawers! I can't put milk in it for another day.

(Sorry for the gold look to the finished fridge -- the color is probably due to fluorescent light above.) It's definitely stainless steel.

So when I bought frozen pie crusts today for Thanksgiving's pumpkin pie, I had to take them to someone else's freezer, and will have to keep them there until I'm ready to cook on Wednesday afternoon.

But in a few days, the big monster will be ready to go. We have to have a meeting to figure out where to put stuff.

The Plumber Cometh

We're getting a new refrigerator! Yay! That's the good news.

The bad news is that we need some new plumbing, new pipes, to feed to the new refrigerator's icemaker.

So, the plumber from Abante Plumber is here. He quickly figured out what he needed to do, occasionally telling me, "I'm going to have to break through this wall...", things like that.

This is a BIG job. So big, I never dreamed of doing it earlier.

And now he's doing it. (And he also fixed my toilet. In 5 seconds.) I love it when professionals are not only professional but competent. Whew.

The Marches Continue

While I was doing an interfaith panel at the Temple Sinai Merritt campus, protesters swarmed around the Mormon Church in Oakland, close to where we used to live.

From MSNBC: "In Oakland, a large protest at the city's Mormon temple led the California Highway Patrol to close two highway ramps to ensure pedestrian safety. Protest organizers said they hoped to tone down the anger that has characterized some previous demonstrations."

And several protests were reported in L.A.

These appear to be last-minute put-together rallies, NOT put other by the Equality for All group or NCLR. It's kind of amazing. It's like this measure woke up the sleeping bear.

And it's angry.

Marching for My Rights

When my fellow students were protesting at San Diego State in the sixties, I didn't join them. VietNam. I couldn't identify. Didn't concern me.

Well, this one concerns me. Proposition 8 just stripped me of my fundamental right to form a legal family. I had the right for 6 precious months, and now it's gone.

First one son, then the other told me about the march tonight. I wasn't going to go. I went to a movie. After the movie, I found myself on a BART train, heading for San Francisco.

I wasn't going to miss this one.

I got there early -- of course -- at 5 pm at the Civic Center. I waited around with a little crowd, growing in number as the minutes ticked away. I saw several had "No on 8" signs with their own sayings on the back. They waved them at passing motorists. Some of the cars honked in approval as they sped past, quickly on their way home in the fading light.

Suddenly I saw that a man was approaching me. I couldn't believe it -- one of my former coworkers! He came over, I hugged him, and he signed a greeting to me. He's deaf. He brought me over to his friends, a man a bit younger than me and two lesbians who were, I'd guess, still in their 20's. We chatted, waiting for the event. I finally asked the guy how he knew my friend. He didn't answer right away, and instead signed to my friend. He finally answered, "Partner. I had to make sure you knew he was gay." Oh, yeah. I knew. And I knew he knew about me.

Finally the small crowd started moving towards Market Street. I wondered why it was such a small crowd, and I finally found out when we reached Market. The crowd was waiting there. When we all got together, the traffic stopped, and the crowd ventured forth out into the street, like Moses parting the Red Sea. Thousands and thousands converged, and we all marched together.

Lots of people started cute little chants, and then one would stop and another began. Lots of homemade signs. Lots of mostly young people, texting as they walked, some talking on their phones, others taking photos with their phones or cameras. We passed one guy on a bullhorn with a sign that said, "Marry Me!" An impossible task right now, it would seem.

I asked one young woman beside me what her sign said. She's a lesbian from Los Angeles and Mexico. She had something to say. Another young woman held a sign: "Let my Moms marry!" Another woman had a sign that said, "You give rights to chickens but take mine away?"

I didn't chant. I felt too small among all the tall people with huge strides, and had to watch where I was going. I was taking it all in. And trying not to be trampled. I'm new at this.

I know that not all these people are gay. Aaron called me -- he was there in the crowd. He supports us. I thanked him for his support on the phone. He answered back: "No, thank you!"

It was an awesome event. I should've done it a long time ago.

Election Night

I'm elated that Barack Obama won. I never in my lifetime thought I'd see the day when a black man would be elected president. It's totally awesome. People in Oakland are literally dancing in the streets.

On the other hand, I'm very depressed that the No on Prop 8 campaign is losing. That so many people hate us. That the polls were wrong -- it looks like some sort of Bradley Effect, where people said something differently than they voted. That it's such an uphill road at this point.

It's 1 am. I really do need to find a way to sleep. Somehow.

If You're Undecided, Just Stay Home

A friend of mine pointed out a website where two older women blog -- http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/

Very interesting, very cool, very funny.

I am very excited about the presidential race. Very. Moreso than at any other time in history. It isn't coincidental that we really need change right now. Still, 7% of voters are undecided. That figure is down to about 2% in several key battleground states. But who the hell ARE these people? Mickey Mouse? Fugitives from illegal ACORN registrations? These two candidates, McCain and Obama, couldn't be more unalike. I think undecideds just want to be in the media focus. Grow up, people.