July 12

In honor of Annie's birthday today, I found a photo from last year (only kidding, 1993) of another July 12.  In the background, waiting patiently for their turn at the Kenwood pool slide are Joe and Sean.  Seems like only yesterday.  Actually not - seems like a long time ago.  We expect to see Annie tomorrow night on her way back from a day of work in Schenectedy, but we won't be having a pool party for her.  I hear there may be ice cream cake though.  Any takers?  It's Ben and Jerry's. Now, are there any takers?

If not, more for me.

We're still in the first half of summer which is nice.  We decided this year not to travel anywhere for more than a couple of days.  One of those visits took us to DC, where we were treated to a mother and child reunion to see Paul Simon with Margaret and Joe and their wonderful spouses -- and Dennis and Gerry.  We had lawn tickets at Wolf Trap which meant  the risk of afternoon/evening showers.  They did not disappoint, as it poured while we were waiting in line to get in.  That would have happened even if we had seats inside, so it was nice when things cleared up for our picnic and then our concert.  He's got a qute a range of songs over the years, and his latest album continues his evolution.  

While there, we also had a barbecue at Joe and Leonor's, where we saw Jeffrey, Melodie, Margaret and Andrew.  Leonor was getting ready for a long visit by her mother.  We had dinner with Foreign Service friends and then Mary stayed a few more days to visit with her teacher friends.  I drove home and on the way home stopped in Lawrenceville for lunch with Peter and Janet.  They spilled the news that Sean is starting a new job as an Assistant DA for Newark in September.  Congrats!  

David and Paula are tackling head on their move and putting in long hours cleaning out, taking stuff to the dump and to Goodwill, and getting ready to "stage" their house for sale.  As luck would have it, they had an offer even before the house was listed, and it looks like that will go through.  (Hope I didn't jinx it!)  It's not luck, however - it's hard work.

Out in the far west - or at least Wisconsin if that counts - Andrew and Lur took their annual week on Green Lake, and this year they were joined by Bill and Jen, Miles, Auden and Elliot.  Dan was there with a friend, and Claire, who is working at a camp on the lake came by for a couple of days.  Wish we were there with you.

Other travel news:  Annie had a work trip out in Denver, where she met up with her friend who she spent a year with in Natick after college.  Margaret is out in Portland now, connecting with her exchange groups who are here for the summer.  And, we hear that John and Marilyn are planning a long drive along Route 66.  

How was your 4th of July?  Did you go to a parade?  A picnic?  A James Taylor concert?  WE DID!  And we took the 5th off, we were so tired.  But it was fun, and the fireworks after the JT concert (he goes by JT to his friends) at Tanglewood were pretty amazing.  Shock and awe, with an incredible crescendo ending of rapid fire explosions.  How will they top that next year?  We will probably not know, but we're glad we did this once.  Hope your 4th included some or all or even more of the above.

We were also moved by the week's news.  We had just seen a play on race and policing called "American Son," and our friends who went with talked about knowing an Ethiopian woman whose son was mistakenly killed by police.  Then Baton Rouge and St. Paul and Dallas.  Stunned.  Our minister on church on Sunday responded with a moving message of the reading which happened to be the story of the Good Samaritan. If you have ten minutes, I recommend it: https://soundcloud.com/st-stephens-pittsfield/july-10-2016  

We are sure to talk about this and many other subjects when we all get together in the Poconos.  Until then, we hope you are all well, and love from up here.

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