Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Time is on my side…response to Julie’s tag for a blog list…


Never rush the hands of time…


Where was I ten years ago?
Working in the same place, same profession and living in the same house…
Had four less grandchildren…I now have eight and wouldn’t mind more… (Easy for me to say)




The next ten years?


Working less and playing golf every day except when asked and have to go shopping at Target with Donas…

If I became a billionaire? (Maybe a millionaire?)
A Mercedes coupe for Gina
New cars for the ‘driving’ grandkids
A 911 for Julie and me
New homes and new cars for all daughters,
A different color Louis Vuitton bag for Allison (Do they make ‘em in different colors?)
A new van for Donas…she wants nothing but a van…I’ll be sure she has the best rims…
Give money away…Church... and relatives (even before they call for donations)... and many friends… (Especially the ones who comment on my blogs regularly)…irregular commenters, forget about it...

Who needs that much money?…not rushing the hands of time…
But I could be talked into a house with an ocean view, adjacent to a golf course…
I would not quit working but tell a few clients to take a flying leap…

Five jobs I’ve had?
Time is on my side…I’ve only had four…
First job after marriage was at Rossmoor Corp., Leisure World in Laguna Hills, as a landscape draftsman…I remember my fellow drafters (we worked on third floor of the Taj Mahal building) laughing when emergency vehicles rolled by…God’s gonna get me!
I was laid off after three years and spent the next four years freelancing…working for other landscape architects, civil engineers, building architects and a famous golf course architect who gave me my passion for golf…
I passed the California State Board of Landscape Architects in 1969, kept on freelancing, then started a partnership in 1971…Cardoza-Di Lallo & Associates…the business grew to two offices with forty employees and after twenty five years I left and started a small group…Di Lallo Landscape Architecture, Inc. in 1996…I am still here and still love coming to work…

Bad habits?
Only one really bad one…really bad! I love watching people wherever I go and try to not laugh at them…very unsuccessfully…I’m so ashamed and always looking for that lightning bolt from up above…pray for me...

A few more things you may not know…
Born and raised in Montreal…mother and siblings too…dad born in Italy…he and his family worked as goat herders…yup! (would I make this up?)
I’m an American by choice…sworn in in 1962…never got drafted…might have escaped to Canada if I had to go to Viet Nam…
Will have been married 46 years this June…we paid for our own wedding…went to Palm Springs for our honeymoon but forgot to make reservations…Love is strange…
When asked by friends how I feel about marriage after all these years I respond that it seems like only 15 years…true story...

5 comments:

Julie Hibbard said...

GREAT post Pops! You are SO dang fun to read...and I know you are loving the writing.
I will take the Porsche and let you know that there will NOT be more grandchildren from THIS daughter. I think within a few years tho, you could have a few great-grandkids! (NOTE: I realize this makes ME a Grandma...YIKES! Thinking further, do you think it's harder to be a GRANDMA or have a DAUGHTER who is a Grandma? Ouch!)
As far as your bad habit goes, it's not all that bad. It's provided YEARS of hilarity and shameful laughter in our home.

And 46 years married...sorry, I don't believe that it feels like 15. I was married 24 years and it seemed like 50...
of course he never went to Target with me.
You're a good man Pete DiLallo

Allison said...

This is a great post!
I always look at people and laugh too!

Heather McTaggart said...

Seriously GOAT HERDERS! WOW, glad to know you didn't take that road! You are a great father and husband...yeah for all those years. How great that your grandchildren have such a great grandfather and that you want more...JULIE???? HAHAHA...I know that answer!
You may have a better chance with Allison having grandkids...ask her about a dream I had!?!?!
My husband LOVES to go to Target with me..he loves to search the clearance aisles!
Your wife and I are SO lucky and SOON very SOON Julie will be THAT lucky! When she meets someone the first question I get to ask him is "Will you shop at Target with her?" That will be the deciding answer...boot or no boot!!

brad johnson said...

Pete...I'm a regular contributor now to your blog. By definition, I'm in line for a wind-fall. Skip the golf course....invest in lottery tickets.

Eliane said...

Pete,
I love that you say I’m an American by choice...I say the same too.