Working out of the house

I’ll try to make a long story short…I did have my own business selling acrylic nail product way back in the early eighties when we lived in Pasadena. I called it “Her Nails”. I enjoyed meeting many people and although I never learned to apply perfect acrylics myself, I could sell the product with success. In the two years that followed however, many new nail products came on the market, and simple acrylics didn’t tickle everyone’s fancy anymore. From do-it-yourself glue-ons, to wraps, to gels, to various nail art, nails took flight and I ended my business. All that took place in the early eighties.

In the late seventies, after our immigration in August of 1972, when we had adjusted somewhat to our new life in Pasadena with three kids and a dog, when the girls were in elementary school and Dennis in Kindergarten, I needed to go to work to supplement our income. I found (that’s a story in itself!) a wonderful job with CSC, Computer Sciences Corporation, part of NASA, in Flintridge, California, close to our home. I shared it with a college student: I worked in the mornings and she worked in the afternoons and it worked out well for all of us. We “sent the Viking to Mars” from 1974-1976. Then I could retire from that job and follow my dreams. First I went to Acting classes in Pasadena, Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. That led to leading roles in four stage productions. I could not keep that up because of the many weeks of evening rehearsals, but they were wonderful experiences. Looking for daytime jobs, my Agent found me several Print Jobs and some extra parts on a TV show with Sarah Jessica Parker, Archie Bunker’s Place and General Hospital, and one black and white Pilot movie with Jessica Lange, where I was a mother in a dark theater being shot while I had a baby in my arms. I did a great job in only one take, and now, thirty-five years later, that pilot would have definitely become a blockbuster, and I a movie star, but not then, alas…

It was really fun when Dennis was old enough to get his own Agent and we did a few Print Jobs together. He was shy on the interviews in the beginning, and he had a disadvantage over other boys, because he was tall as a six or seven year old, but being only five, he could not read fluently yet. He did enjoy the Print Jobs though and earned a nice base for his college education. And then I discovered Commercial Acting, perfect for my situation. My Agent would send me on interviews in the mornings, sometimes I would get a call back, and once in a while the job! The job was usually a one day shoot on location, and I could manage to find after school solutions for the kids if I would be late coming home. Commercials brought in the most money, because the one day shoot, if it was for a national commercial, would send me residual checks every time it showed! We took a trip back to Holland with that money and surprised Mamma and Pappa (well, mostly Mamma) with first a dishwasher and then a dryer 🙂 Pappa did not see the need: “Your mother can do the dishes perfectly well, and she loves to hang the laundry on the line.”

Back down to Earth

Have you ever been sick, taken medications and more medications and nothing seemed to make you feel better? Well, that happened just now to me. After I recovered from the Flu in eight days thanks to Tamiflu, I got sick again on a Friday. On Monday I got prescriptions from a doctor’s assistant for an antibiotic, eye drops and cough medicine, but nothing changed in the way I felt. So last Thursday I asked if I would perhaps have a viral infection instead of a presumed bacterial one? The doctor herself came by for a swab, and today I got the news that I had been right, and should discontinue the antibiotic. I am now diagnosed with RSV. I knew only RSVP, but the P is missing here, and this  is a Viral respiratory disease that I’ve had long enough now so I’m not contagious anymore. I just need R & R, which gives me the excuse to stay put and write, and read books, and next week I can get prepared for three upcoming Presentations.

Calendar Page

Talking about upcoming Presentations, my Webmaster added a new Page to my Website: Calendar. It’s not just for interested people to find out what’s happening and where to go, but mostly for me, to make sure that I will be there with all my paraphernalia, and to make sure that my equipment synchronizes with the equipment of the presentation hall. Last Friday, I called the Cary Senior Center, where I hope to speak on March 14.

“Yes,” they said when I asked, “people need to register for your lecture.”

“Oh, how many people have registered so far?”

“Twenty-five, that’s all the room will hold, and there is a waitlist of eighteen.”

“What? Don’t you have a larger room?” Silence, checking going on…

“Yes, if you can change the time from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., the Grand Ballroom will be available.”

“Does it have a projector and large screen?”

“Yes, it does.”

And so I am going to check out the Grand Ballroom for my lecture next Thursday. I wish there would be a Big Band and I could go dancing in a beautiful gown with an adorable partner! I would surely dance all night!

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,.

Ronny

 

 

 

 

Health?

The healthy days after I recovered from the Flu did not last long. I think we passed  bacteria and/or viruses back and forth between the two of us. And since Friday, when I woke up with a sore throat and a cough, I feel sicker than I have in a long time. So I’m moving from the sofa to my bed during the days, and on days that the doctor has been (Doctors Making Housecalls) I take a trip to the pharmacy to pick up the prescriptions. A good thing is that we can order things for breakfast and for dinner at the Club. We call in our order, I drive over with Mike, and he goes in to pick up the food – at this time he is in better shape than I. We ordered chocolate ice cream for dessert today to celebrate the 58th anniversary of the day we got engaged! You’ve got to celebrate every occasion when you still have a chance!

It’s a wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

Health

Ah, to be healthy again! It takes a few weeks of being sick to be aware and thankful of good health! Mike must have caught a bug on the plane home from Miami on Tuesday, I got it four days later. It took two visits to Urgent Care in the weekend and trips to the pharmacy and more doctors visits in our home, plus lots of medication to get at least me healthy again. Pretty fast, too, only a week with Tamiflu, I can’t complain. But Mike’s cough is still lingering.

Back at the Club, I noticed several people missing. The flu is going around, to be sure, and people stay in their apartments because of that, one friend was in the hospital for back surgery but is expected back soon, and some friends have moved to Assisted Living. I walked over there after breakfast this morning when I heard that Winnie’s grandson’s wife in Tennessee had been killed in a car accident. Winnie moved to Assisted Living the day after Valentine’s Day, and her husband now has to go to attend the services in Tennessee. A good opportunity to do something fun for Winnie, who can’t go with him because she is in a wheelchair and on oxygen.

Tomorrow morning I will go over and give her a manicure. I’m thinking back to the days when we lived in Pasadena and I learned to apply acrylic nails. One of our friends, a chemist, had developed an acrylic material that could be used for acrylic nails. The only product on the market at that time was called Lee Nails (does anyone remember it?). Well, our friend the chemist asked if I would like to market his product. Since I never say no, at least not in those days, I started on the basics: learning to apply the product, getting to know the tools and tricks of the trade, offering free acrylic nails to friends, finding salons nearby who would be willing to give the product a try.

Oh dear, lots of things are happening here! I hope to continue tomorrow…

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next Time!

Ronny

Extra News on February 14, 2018

I love to share with you all a review of my friend Anna Konya.
Check out her website when you have a few minutes…

Review of my Audiobook by Anna Konya (http://annakonyadesigns.com)

Why and when an Audiobook makes more Sense!

“This is just to let you know that I listen to your fabulous story while working on skirts, and I’ve absorbed much more with the audible version. I love hearing the correct pronunciations, the amazing history, everything. There is so much to be done around here that sitting and reading has kind of gone by the wayside. But listening is quite another thing. I’m loving it. Hope you can “read” all your publications. I know it’s quite an undertaking, but I love it, so of course you’ll do it for me, ha!

At the moment I’m on Chapter 23. Wow, what an adventure. And I must say that your life has certainly encompassed many lives. So many of us get stuck in the arms of habit. Listening to your story is a mind opener for me.  Thank you so much, Ronny!”

Anna Konya touches on the fact that for readers who have no knowledge of life in the Indies and all the “foreign” words that are a large part of my book, it is more enjoyable to listen to the story than to read it, precisely because of the better understanding they get of the whole story with the correct pronunciation.

I wrote my books in the first place for the second and third generations of those of us whose parents were incarcerated but could not talk about the horrors of those years. Through the insightful words of Anna Konya I now realize that the Audiobook makes my story more enjoyable for other readers all over the world as well. Thank you Anna Konya!

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until Next Time!

Ronny

 

Happy Valentine’s Day to all my friends!

Well, it certainly has been quite a while since I have been in touch. We had a lovely cruise and this time we both stayed healthy thank goodness. It was not until two days afterwards that Mike broke out in coughs and sneezes, probably got the virus on the plane home from Miami, and on Saturday I started. Despite our early flu shots we both got the flu and are staying put with lots of medications. The weather is cooperating, dark clouds and periods of misty rain make it cozy to stay inside.

We left Miami on January 23 in the late afternoon/early evening, capturing a view of the Miami skyline:

After two days on the Caribbean Sea we visited first the Island of Aruba, then Bonaire, both still with strong ties to the Netherlands. Aruba and Bonaire, currently self governing island nations, used to be part of the Dutch West Indies and both produce their own supply of water from seawater. They also produce literally mountains of salt for export to Europe, Asia and America.

Bonaire is famous for snorkeling and especially diving, all around the island. I do not dive, because you need training and a license for that, and there is enough to see with just snorkeling along a reef, I always thought, but I was not aware of “snuba diving”. And now that I am, I have put a new item on my bucket list!

Snuba diving is a relatively young form of diving that was invented in 1989 and further patented in 1990. Since its inception, it has become popular in a large range of locations throughout the world, such as the Caribbean and Hawaii. So what exactly is Snuba diving?  In essence, snuba diving is a combination or snorkeling and SCUBA diving. Snuba diving, like snorkeling, doesn’t require carrying an air tank in order to breathe while swimming underwater. Instead, the air tank is connected to a small raft that sits atop the water above you. Snuba divers are connected to the raft via a lengthy hose. This hose allows divers to dive down approximately 15 ft. and stay there for an extended period of time, swimming around freely without the need to come up to the surface for air, which is one of the primary disadvantages of snorkeling. Whoa! Does that not sound fantastic? There was one other island on our cruise that offered the option of a Snuba diving expedition, but when I wanted to sign up for that on the ship, they said it was canceled because of lack of participation. Had I only know sooner!

In the sixteen hundreds slave trade was rampant in these islands. Tiny living quarters for the slaves were constructed out of stone, rising no higher than a man’s waist with a small entrance to crawl into. Some of these tiny dwellings, in which a man sadly can not stand upright, provided sleeping quarters for up to six people. There must also have been white slaves, since the yellow rock in front of one of the slave quarters indicates “white slave”. In my picture you see the window. On the other side, facing the ocean, is a narrow door opening, the top of which came to my waist.

On both Aruba and Bonaire, Organ Pipe cactus grows everywhere. And of course through the ages people have made use of the things at hand: we saw cactus fences in many places. Now those are fences no burglar will climb!

On Grenada I took a catamaran tour to a snorkeling place and “the most beautiful beach in the world”. Well, the snorkeling place was just from the beach to a rock wall, and the most beautiful beach in the world can’t compare to the beaches in Hawai’i, where I had the privilege to live for twelve years.

One thing is certain though, the Caribbean as well as the Hawaiian waters are warm, turquoise and blue, oh, so blue!

  

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time!

Ronny

Cruising!

Once in a while you need to escape every day living, and so, when the opportunity arises to celebrate something, we do! Right now, we are celebrating our 57th Wedding Anniversary and are sailing in the Caribbean Sea on our way to Southern islands that have not been hit by the recent Hurricane. Looking forward to visiting Dutch speaking Aruba and Bonaire…

When I get bored I may take to my iPad again, but for now I’ll say, “tot de volgende keer!”

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Ronny

Free Audiobook!

Hello dear friends,
Nothing seems more exciting at this time than my Audiobook! It has finally been accepted by Audible (Amazon) and below is the link to my Youtube Preview.

To all of you who are willing to listen to the story and write a review for me on Amazon, I will send a Special Promo Code when you contact me so you can download the Audiobook for free.

If you have relatives or friends who also want my book free of charge, ask them to contact me as well and they will get a Promo Code in exchange for a review by return email!

Contact me through my email ronnyhermandejong@gmail.com or my website: http://www.ronnyhermandejong.com/contact/

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until Next Time,

Ronny

Hanging out with my Grandson

Last weekend all activities in this area were cancelled because of snow earlier and black ice. So all the plans of the de Jong family were deferred to the following weekend, but then they were added to the commitments of that weekend, and that did not all work. That Saturday, the two older boys had auditions with trombone (2) and trumpet for the regional bands and the jazz band, all the way in Greensboro. Their mom took them and had to leave at 5:30 a.m. to make the first audition. Dad had an all day rehearsal in Raleigh for the Sunday performance of the Chamber Orchestra and had to leave at 8:15 a.m. That left a very boring day for the youngest grandson: he had to go along with his brothers with nothing to do all day than hang around. But then there was OmaRon!

We had not been able to celebrate Grant’s 8th birthday because of snow and ice, so I still had his present, and we decided we would spend the day together. I left my house at 7:45 a.m. with the birthday gift and a Dutch treat, picked him up at his house and took him to his basketball game at the Apex Community Center. I learned a few things: for little kids they lower the basketball backboard and net and I think the court is shorter. Those kids could run! And score! It was an important game against a team they had not defeated before, but they did now, with 32 against 23.

When we got home, two girls pushing a cart were on the front door steps. “Hi there, can we help you?”
“Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?” one of them said and showed us a list. It was rather early in the year, I thought. Usually I would have to order them and they would drop them off at a later date. We had always bought a few boxes from our granddaughter in California, who then would save them in the freezer until we visited her again.
” Do you have them with you?”
“Yes, we do.” That was an advantage, for them and for us. I selected one box and Grant pointed at another kind, “That is one Mom always buys.”
“Do you have change for $20?” And then the two mothers, who had been waiting at the curb by the car, came closer and produced change.

A lucky day for all, but it was cold and we quickly went inside. Next, we took the dog for a walk. But it was very cold and windy, so we did not go as far as we had planned. Back home, Grant took a shower and then he made us both a mug of hot chocolate. It was hot and delicious. We sipped it sitting on the stools at the kitchen table. Then he climbed down and got a plastic tube out of the fridge, which he tore open at one end and started sucking. “What is that?”
“Soft yoghurt.”
“Really? What flavor?”
“Berry.”
“Does berry taste good with hot chocolate?” A shrug.
“I am sucking it to make my mouth cool off, so I can drink the hot chocolate. It is very hot you know.”
“Yes. But what you could also do is put an ice cube in the chocolate.” Ah, that was a good idea. He climbed down from the stool again and got an ice cube, then took another sip of the chocolate. But the ice cube got into his mouth without melting, and so he had to get another one. We decided we would leave the Dutch stroopwafel treat for later that afternoon because we were first going for lunch to Chick-Fil-A, his favorite place, where he knew exactly what to order. 6 chicken nuggets with fries and a small chocolate milkshake. I decided on 6 baked chicken nuggets and a similar milkshake. Delicious. When we had finished he neatly collected all the discarded items in the bag and took it to the waste basket. Then he went to was his hands and waited until I had washed mine, and then we went in search of the movie theatre.

Even with my navigation system, and even though the theatre was supposedly on the same street, we could not find it. We asked twice, and then found out we had to go to the next shopping center with the same street name, up the hill and down the hill and around the traffic circle. And there it was!

We went to see the movie Paddington 2. I had heard the name Paddington but was not familiar with the character. It was a very enjoyable movie, with lots of laughs, some harrowing moments, a few moving scenes, and a happy ending. We had mutually agreed not to get popcorn and a drink after our lunch, and had a wonderful time watching the show. I must admit that I dozed off several times, but I caught at least the beginning and the end, and several adventures in between.

When we came home his Dad was home early, and after Grant had opened his gift and enjoyed his stroopwafel we hugged goodbye and I drove home, arriving just in time for our dinner at the Club. What a day! Mike had enjoyed a peaceful, relaxing day, just the way he wanted, and I had spent an active day hanging out with my grandson. A joy I had not known before.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

More Celebrations

It was so wonderful two days ago to walk early in the morning, after a night’s gentle rain at the beginning of a whole hew year! The roads were clean, the sidewalks and the greenways had no more leaves and branches and needles, and the air was fresh, just like an early morning in Hilo, Hawai’i. Ah! What a blessing on this special day, our 57th Wedding Anniversary.

We celebrated with bouquets of flowers in the house, orange and yellow Alstromeria and cream colored roses. Two ladies from Management brought a card and a big balloon, and at night we had dinner in an authentic Thai restaurant less than three miles away. Delicious food.

Another reason that I am a little late with my weekly story is that Amazon, as one of the last, approved my Audiobook of Rising from the Shadow of the Sun. What joy! They have a special going: if you sign up for a free 1 month trial of Audible you get a free audiobook. Of course there are many other sources who are now offering copies for sale, and I believe that Barnes and Noble is the least expensive one at this time. Check it out!

Last, but not least, I have a preview video up on Youtube, where you can watch and listen to the introduction to see if you like it. Here is the link: Rising from the Shadow of the Sun Audiobook

If you like it, give it a Like, a Comment and Share! I am so excited that this dream finally came true.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It’s amazing how fast 2017 has gone by. Last year we watched Times Square at 10:00 p.m. (PST) while it happened live in New York City (EST) and called it a day. This year, we had a wonderful New Year’s Eve Party!

From 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Jacqueline, everyone’s favorite entertainer, came with her lively music program while people were seated around the dance floor and many got up to dance. The Activities Director served champagne, cheese and crackers, meatballs and bread pudding and to add some fun for those who wanted there were party hats and flutes.

At one point, Jacqueline played Mele Kalikimaka and before I knew it I got up and started dancing. I assume you have heard the song? It is “The Hawaiian way to say Merry Christmas to you.” Everyone loved it, and a little later, when more people came in, they asked for a repeat. At that point Jacqueline gave me a lei and I took off my shoes to make it all a little more proper, and there I went again. It was fun, and I thought I should practice some of my dances for future events!

After 9:00 p.m. Peter said he would get his accordion from his apartment and everybody lingered, and those who had left came back, for an hour of wonderful sing-along music. Peter is a fantastic accordion player, who twice played in Carnegie Hall with his German Dance Band. He lost his wife of 67 years last month and teared up once in a while; but he himself enjoys playing his music, as he says. So he plays for us often.

And so a new year has started and I am wishing you all a wonderful, happy and healthy year. We are looking forward to fun and exciting travels, big surprises and good times with family members, in particular an all-family reunion in July!

 

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny