Sunday, March 15, 2015

Next week, spring?

Rumor has it that the sun is shining and some places are actually warm, and perhaps even seeing the first signs of spring.  It is only a rumor, as it snowed here today (didn't stick) and I just went out snowshoeing.  Last weekend, I went cross-country skiing around the lake (photo.)   We are seeing temperatures above freezing, and so we're imagining it's soon to be spring.

I was able to go skiing only because Mary got a bad cold and cut short our weekend trip.  We went to Princeton on Friday, to complete an interview with the Princeton University architect I had been trying to get for months.  After a couple of hours of waiting and missed appointments, I finally got the interview and it was worth the wait.  This is for my project on the Pittsfield library, designed by an architect who had also done 6 different buildings on the university campus, including the one where Grandma and Pop met. 

Anyway, it was a good excuse to stop in and see Peter and Janet.  Of course it had snowed there the day before we arrived, but that didn't stop any of us from our agenda.  We went to a Princeton basketball game, that thankfully was not too heart-stopping, as Princeton led most of the way.  Supper at a brewery (yeah!) and then we submitted Peter and Janet to our slide show of our school project in Gabon.  They were good sports.  By the way, it's coming your way, too, if you want.  Margaret and Andrew had already seen it, but we can show you again.

Sunday morning, we had a leisurely breakfast and heard about Janet's busy schedule, including arranging a trip to New York City for her 6th grade class (I hope I got that right.)  Peter's signed up to audit another class on campus.  After many years of being on the receiving end of Peter's books, I brought one down to give to him that I thought he'd like.  In return he put a bag of about 15 books in the car on leaving.  Not really a fair trade, but thank you.   

So, we were supposed to then head off to Rhode Island but Mary felt a cold coming and we opted to head home.  Not before stopping in to see Annie, though.  (Hope you didn't get sick.)  Annie was busy with school work but was on her way to a conference at the law school on the country's incarceration problem.  

Through the week, though, we've been battling the colds that just seemed to linger around.  Thank goodness for Alka-Seltzer Cold, DayQuil and other assorted medicines.

We saw some wonderful photos from New Orleans, where Margaret and Andrew went for the long weekend and let the good times roll.  We talked to Joe who has been gearing up to run a marathon in Berkshire County in May.  I signed up for the half-marathon, but found that Joe was already running half-marathons as part of his training.  I did 6 miles yesterday on the treadmill.  Hopefully, the snow will be melted by May.

We had a bunch of calls to finalize plans for Mountain Springs in July.  Thanks to David for organizing everything. That should be fun  We were last there nine years ago.  David also told us that they were in the middle of a renovation project to replace all the doors in their house.    

The news from Dundee is Daniel's injury from basketball.  He hurt his ankle tendon, but they were waiting the results of the MRI.  Not sure if I am supposed to say this but he hurt himself by dunking the ball.  That makes him the first Dickson to dunk a ball, at least on a ten-foot basket.  Good news and bad news.

This week is spring break at UMass, but instead of heading to Cancun with all my peeps, I'll be staying home.  Mary has a break in April, and we toyed with the idea of traveling then, but it turns out we had to scratch Daytona off our list as John and Marilyn are coming north then.  Why?  To close on their house.  They got an offer and so they are making the big step final.  Congratulations are in order since I know they've wanted this, but all the same we're going to miss them.  Right now they are in Arizona on a dune-buggy vacation.

This coming week, David's birthday.  Have a great one!   

Love from up here.    


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