Family

Quick Trip

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Went out to see the Grandkids on Thursday after seeing Jenn and Neil on Tuesday Neil’s birthday was the 11th, Janis’s is the 12th. They came out foe 36 hrs to gamble a little and to work the rest of the time. Jenn surprised me with texts

So we met them at the restaurant and unfortunately Neil was in the parking lot walking back from his car as Janis saw him and said I know that guy” ir was still a nice surprise and a great dinner.

Since It was the last day to file an extension for taxes so a real busy few days for Jennifer’s business. They were overwhelmed when they got back home so called the next day to see if we could come ut and help with the kids while they focused on work.

So we’re out there Friday thru today. Tomorrow they are going to Disneyland with their cousins. Disneyland reopened with the Covid pandemic . Hope they get a nice day and stay safe.

My Cousin David Bradley, Red Rocks,

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My cousin David Bradley came to visit. He was in Fresno, and stopped on the way to Mesa Arizona, where he is now going to live. His father died in March and left David his car and house (fully paid off), and David has had 30 years of Chicago winters and that is enough for him.

I haven’t seen him since he was 12, and I was 19. He got hooked on genealogy after I told him about doing my research for 5 years. He is a much better researcher than I am. For the first 1/2 of the day we had the laptop out and were doing Ancestry.com Dueling.

We then went to Red Rocks National Conservatory area. It still requires reservations, which I wasn’t aware of, but as long as you had internet connection, you can do it online.

We then went to Silverton so he could watch Janis and I play Pai Gow, and he could learn the game, and learn that it is hard to win at Pai Gow. We ate dinner at Mi Casa, and Juan our waiter again took great care of us. David loved the food and the chips/salsa, but apparently woke up at 230 am with heartburn. The hot salsa was a little too hot for him.

He left today and it was a short, nice visit, but now that he lives in Mesa, close to Dodgers spring Training camp, I’m sure we’ll see a lot of each other.

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This is a spider sac, hundreds of spiders are in this thing. They come out at night. .

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Beach Time!

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Nice day at Point Magu with Burt and Selma, Dana, Kyle and Emi.. It was a celebration of Selma’s, Kyle’s, and Sophia’s birthday which is this Friday the 26th. Burt has a 32’ RV and was going to stay there for a few days it’s a nice RV park, right on the beach just south of Point Magu.

Sophia had a fever ester day and also today, so spent a lot of time on daddy’s shoulder. Her molars are coming in so that was causing her feaver.

Lunch With The Siblings (and Cousins),

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We went over to Nancy‘s, and Pat was brought over from her assisted living place, and we had lunch in the backyard nice time. Ryan and Derek haven’t spent a lot of time with Eli and Ali in fact they’ve never met Holly before and he’s over when years old. We had a good time.

Global Warming?

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My brother Jack lives in Dallas, and has been below freezing since Thursday. He hasn’t left the house since Thursday night. Luckily he works from home on Fridays, and yesterday was President’s day, so he had the day off. The power has been out a couple times, the last time for 15 hours. Not having gas heat, his house dropped down to 55 degrees. One pipe frozen, but global warming isn’t real!

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Texas

deepfreeze

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Jack’s house

Phil

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Phil has been here since November 1st. He’s 94 years old, and has slowed down just in the time he has been here. More unsteady on his feet, etc. He enjoyed having the family here this weekend, but he didn’t interact as much, but that’s ok. He just watched from the sidelines.

But being 94 years old, know he’s not going to be around forever. The greatest generation is dying off quickly. 325,574 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are alive in 2020..

But being 94 years old, know he’s not going to be around forever. The greatest generation is dying off quickly. 325,574 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are alive in 2020..

Phil with another Navy man, David Lewy, that we bowl with.

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Phil and David

Leo Hollenbeck funeral

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Leo’s funeral was today at Los Angeles National Cemetery, the military cemetery that is called The Arlington of the West”.

It is right off of the 405 freeway and you can see the grave markers from the freeway. Where Leo is interred is on the west side of the freeway which I didn’t even realize was part of the cemetery, I always thought those grounds were part of the VA hospital there.

They had a military honor guard, which was very nice, and unfortunately, only allowed for 10 people to be there. Noreen, a good friend of Pat and Nancy’s from Boston, was there, as well as Lupe, who lived two doors down from Nancy.

In COVID era, everyone wore a mask, even the priest and the bagpiper.

There was a 7 person color guard, which was very nice. A 3 gun salute, along with a trumpeter playing taps also. They had the flag folding ceremony and presented the flag to Pat.

He will be missed!

The family would like to thank Rose Funeral Home in Moorpark for their service. #Rosefuneralhome

Leo will be located in A4, space E14.

A Little about Leo’s Life.

Leo was born in St. Joseph, Missouri on November 1, 1935, the first of Leo and Retha’s four children. He went to school in Missouri and graduated from Webster Grove High School in Webster Grove, Missouri in 1953. He was president of his senior class.

After High School he attended St. Mary’s Seminary in Texas prior to his long military career First 4 years in the Air Force and 40 years in Army Reserves retiring as a Sergeant Major. He married Patricia Mullen in 1967. Leo’s life long interest in reading let him to a Masters in Library Science. For 41 years he was the chief Reference Librarian at the Social Security Administration Headquarters in Baltimore MD.

Both Pat and Leo were Eucharistic ministers at their home Parish St. Gabriel’s in Woodlawn, Maryland. He also lectured there for years . He was a Third degree K of C and Boy Scout Leader.

Both he and Pat were USO volunteers at BWI airport for many years. They each had over 50,000  hrs of service. They also were Volunteer Couple of the year in the USO with numerous commendations.

He was a life long learner and educator to others. He talked to everyone, always asking about them and where they were from.   He will be very missed by his brother Charles, sister Judith Cobin. Also his brother in laws ,Sisters in law, nieces, nephews ,great nieces and great nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister Liz Ibarra.

3 Siblings

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Pat and Nancy came over to the house to see the kids, but the only one there at the house was Sophia. Ryan and Derek were up at Nona’s (Irene) with Neil. Ellie came over with them too. Nice visit. Too bad Jack couldn’t fly out to the funeral which is on Thursday. This stupid COVID!

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R.I.P. Leo Hollenbeck, 1935-2020

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Leo passed away last night after his battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 84 years old. Par had seen him yesterday, and his seizures and episodes were happening more frequently and severe. She was there two hours earlier. He will be cremated and buried with honors at Los Angeles National Cemetery.

Leo was a super smart man, worked for years at the SSA in Baltimore Md, as the research librarian.

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Ryan is in Kindergarten!

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Socially distanced kindergarten sucks! He’s shown here at his first day of class at Kindergarten at the same school that Jenn went to for 6th grade, which had just opened that year that we lived there. Small world. He seems to like it. Goes to class from 8:30 am to 9:15, and then again from 10:00 to 10:30 (reading or another subject). Also has an assignment to do during the day at home, like one day we were there, he had to take all the shoes by the front door and sort them all by colors.

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Kindergarten kid!

Pool Time With The Grand kids

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The grand kids came out for 4 days, and we went to the pool today.

Sure is nice having them around. Just love being around them. Sophia didn’t seem to mind the water, and Derek is doing much better. Ryan is a little fish in the water.

Desert Museum tree is down!

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The size when first planted 4 years ago.

We planted a desert museum tree in the backyard when we landscaped. We’ve seen them in center islands and all around town, and they are a nice shady tree.

We didn’t cut it back much, but did do it twice in the 4 years. It got REALLY big, and really heavy.

About a month ago it bloomed, and the yellow flowers it produced really made the tree heavy. It even started listing to the left, and kind of covered up the humming bird feeder that was on a hook.

The grand kids came over on Tuesday and were here till last night. On Wednesday afternoon, while they were all asleep (and not playing in the backyard as they had just an hour earlier, the tree fell down. It crashed into the windows (luckily not breaking them).

We saw that it was listing on Tuesday so we called a tree service to have them come out and trim it back on Thursday, but instead they totally removed it.

Loving those grandkids

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Jennifer and Neil had to do a lot of weekend work, so we came out for 5 days to take the kids off their hands. We went to see Pat and Nancy with Sophia, before Pat moved into Leo’s assisted living place. Leo is moving into a skilled nursing facility, and Pat is needing more care than Nancy can provide.

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