Dreaming of a

White Thanksgiving.  Not really.  I'm actually dreaming of a bit of a let up so I could drive to Hudson NY to pick up Joe, who's coming in tonight on the train.  When we made the decision a few weeks ago to have Thanksgiving here, it seemed like a good idea.  Those of us who have more flexible schedules had been going to Washington for Thanksgiving the last few Novembers, saving the working stiffs from battling the holiday mass travel.  Anyway, we may go back to our original plans next year.  Still, it will be nice to have Annie and Joe here; Margaret and Andrew are in Pennsylvania for the holiday.  Annie came up yesterday by train.

Where are you?  Hopefully inside and warm.  I hear David and Paula will have a houseful, as I suspect Andrew and Lur will as well.  If I remember right, the Peter Dicksons normally head to one of Janet's cousins for a big extended family dinner.  We hear Kathleen will be hosting Thanksgiving for her parents in Boston, and John and Marilyn will have a crowd here.

Timmy will be warm outside, in LA, where he will be having his first Thanksgiving as a married man.  Yes, that is THE big news of the letter, that Tim was married on November 15 to Denisa Edete, a woman he has known for a long time.  They tied the knot in Las Vegas, and we were able to watch it live streamed.  Congratulations.  We understand there may be a wedding reception next year in LA.  

At least he wasn't in Buffalo.  No matter how bad the weather gets, we will always be able to say, at least we're not in Buffalo.  We originally thought Rochester/Fairport was in the same track, but David and Paula said they only got a few inches of the same storm.  Just that part of Buffalo closest to the lake got hit badly.  David was driving back from Albany and managed to avoid the closing of Rt 90 further west.  

Don't ever say I wait until the last minute to get my jobs done.  At 8am today, before the first snow flake fell, I was 5th in line to get my snow tires put on.  So, two hours later, when I pulled out of the auto shop, the old Saturn was ready, and we needed the tread immediately.  Should help on my drive later this evening.  And, if you notice in the picture below, I was waiting for Joe to help me put the picnic table out of the snow.  Oh well.

On the travel scene, Joe gets the award for furthest distance since the last letter.  He's been to Hong Kong and back, all in the space of a week.  He wrote from the airport saying he had a middle seat on a 16-hour flight. Kathleen was not far behind as she went to Morocco. 

Andrew and Lur went out to see Claire for parents' weekend at Hope, and they said they went to a concert where Claire was playing the oboe.  She had gotten into the college orchestra, quite an achievement.  Also from Dundee, is news that Daniel has started basketball practice/tryouts.  He has also become the youngest Dickson to get a car, I believe.  It's a sporty Mazda, for a sporty guy.

With Annie last night, we had the first of our current event conversations that I am sure are played out across the country.  The topic was Ferguson.  I suspect there are many families will be grappling with this and other topics, like immigration, over turkey.  We used to get fairly worked up over these talks.  Now, it's kind of fun to hear points of view we don't normally get, in our quiet, staid lives. 

What else?  Little things, like ongoing plans for our trip back to Gabon.  We got our visas, and we've placed our first order for wood to repair the roof.   we had a pizza dinner the other night John and Marilyn who was on the mend for a second knee operation.  Now she's ready for golf, if only there was no snow.  And we had two visits from Peace Corps friends, Charlie Morrison and Tom Friedeberg, who Joe will remember as he put together a short internship for Joe in Madagascar.

And we close this special Thanksgiving edition with a photo of the most recent newlyweds; move over Margaret and Andrew.

Have a wonderful, fantastic day tomorrow.  Love from up here.

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Look what I forgot!

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The video of Peter's appearance October 7 appearance at the NJ Supreme Court is now up and running: http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/webcast/archive.htm

He appears around minute 45.

Also here's an interesting website that describes a little bit about you based on where you are living: http://www.esri.com/data/esri_data/ziptapestry  I found out that, in Pittsfield, we're "set to impress", young and either still in college or working, or "comfortable empty nesters" transitioning to retirement.  Hmmm.  Wonder which one we are.  What does your zip code say about you?

Back to DC

​After not going to Washington since May, we have now been twice since the end of October.  We drove back to Washington this past weekend, just two weeks after the big party.  We went to drop off our visa applications for Gabon, but also to check in with Joe, Margaret and Andrew.  It was a short trip but we packed it in, with side visits to see friends from Peru, South Africa and Arlington, all of whom were at the wedding reception.  So it was nice to revisit the party with them.

We stayed with Margaret and Andrew and (Dee) which was nice and comfortable.  We also went to Joe's new apartment and helped him hang pictures.  He had a friend from St. Andrews visiting, a Tanzanian named Omar, who was in the U.S. on a year-long fellowship (through the State Department.)  He joined us for dinner on Saturday night, and found he knew more about the NBA than anyone else around the table.  Joe, by the way, is getting ready to go to Hong Kong later this month, so he has been in touch with my college roommate who used to live there.

Since Margaret's new apartment is near the Marriott, I took a couple of walks around the neighborhood, looking for everyone - the Marriott, Glen's Garden Market, Ruth's Chris Steak House.  We didn't make it back to Recessions, which is probably where everyone was.  Karaoke and the cheapest beer in town.

Besides the wedding reception, we spent a fair amount of time talking about the elections.  Lots of disappointment with Obama, from his own supporters.  I am still not there, and posted on Facebook today a nice article about all that has been accomplished these past years.  Enough politics.

Enjoying my second retirement since my class ended and the Herman Melville season is over, I joined Johnny for a kayak trip down the Housatonic.  Beautiful, meandering stretch of the river and the hills in the near distance.  Johnny who has been canoeing on the river for over 20 years has a story for every bend, when floods washed out trees, how the river has changed course and a fair number of unforeseen canoe flips in frigid water.  It was my first time in a kayak on a river, and it went well.  Even though the water was gently flowing, it was still a workout going back upstream.

John and Marilyn had just come back from Florida, as Marilyn is going to have a knee operation.  We joined them for a Kelly's Diner brunch - another sign of retirement!!

What else?  We are almost caught up on our Homeland viewing, so we need a new show.  We did go to the movies recently to see Gone Girl, which was good, but had a very unsatisfying ending.  I think we were the only people in America who did not read the book.  Our Halloween adventure was going to a play on Edgar Allen Poe's last days in Baltimore.  Two other cultural activities included a concert in Great Barrington by a guy who lives in Barcelona, named Sam Lardner.  We learned he had played in Princeton two nights earlier.  

We also attended a "summit" on historic preservation in Pittsfield, because of concern over a plan by Dunkin Donuts to tear down an old church for one of their stores.  Now I admit I like Dunkin Donuts, but that comes as close to Joni Mitchell's song about paving paradise as anything I've seen.  I was the moderator of the meeting, that included our mayor.  Fortunately, the donut chain has scrapped their plans due to community outrage, but no one is sure what comes next.

We spoke with Annie who has accepted a job with General Electric, starting next July,  Congrats!!

And, it is getting cold up here.  We've had our first fire.  And, even though we miss summer, this fall has been pretty wonderful.

What's new with you?  Got a photo to share?

Love from up here.