Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  What did you do today?  Eat chocolates?  Open a card?  Take a plane to Oakland?  Fix a dryer vent?

If you didn't do the latter, then you are really missing the whole point of St. Valentine's Day. 

We're down in DC with Margaret and Andrew (and SIMON), and among the many things that went wrong in their lives this past week, their dryer breaking was the last straw.  We hope.  More on all the other things later, but they bought a new dryer and then after hooking it up, they found out their vent was clogged.  I should add they still needed the new dryer.  Anyway, as you know, everything is on YouTube or Google, so Andrew ordered the snake/brush to clean out the dryer vent which winds through the basement ceiling about ten yards.  We may be half way there, but I suspect Andrew has a little more to do after we leave.

Long story, but, wait, there's more.  It has to do with their day care shutting down because a staff member tested positive for you know what.  Then Simon got sick with a high fever, and they spent more than a few hours in the emergency room.  His test, fortunately, came back negative, as did Margaret and Andrew's.  So we came down to help out, where we could.  He recovered, slowly through the week.

And there's still more.  Margaret has started a very strict, supervised diet to get at the root of her stomach issues.  So, while we all ate birthday cake and generally partook in all things festive to celebrate Lincoln's birthday, Margaret watched longingly.

And there's more.  We did a Zoom call with Brazil and Vermont, and all is well at those two weather extremes.  But Annie's storage area was in the way of a burst fire hydrant, so that flooded, and she and Sankar are on their way back to Oakland right now to assess the damage.  Thank goodness for USAA.

And let's hope that's it.  We drive home tomorrow, and expect bad weather, so we don't want any more stories.  I'll go for uneventful.  And my motto – "no hospitals."

There's been a lot of weather, from Chicago to NJ through Rochester.  We saw snow all the way down on the drive, a rarity.  We might have about two feet on the ground at home, and are expecting another 6-10 inches this week.  David said it's snowing a couple of inches almost every day.  In Dundee, Andrew can barely make it out to the grill.  Don't even compare Vermont – Annie said Sankar went skiing on Friday, and it was minus 20 or something at the top of the mountain.

There's no snow in Daytona, I'm pretty sure.  The news from there is that they had their first shot this week, and have their follow-up scheduled in March.  I kind of thought David and Paula would have had theirs, but they're weeks away probably.  David, by the way, is knee-deep in his senior housing project, which he has been selected to lead.

There's nothing but rain in Brazil it seems, as they're full on the rainy season.  Normally, they would also be full on Carnevale, but you can imagine even they have muted the festivities down there.  Not enough though to stop Thomas and John's day cares from having dress up parties.  Thomas went as Woody from Toy Story and John as a tiger.  I know someone who would be happy with the tiger choice.

We will also have a muted Mardi Gras up in Pittsfield.  Heading back to our routines of lifelong learning courses and winter sports, like shoveling.  And snowshoeing and x-country skiing. 

One other breaking news item.  You all will remember Susan Pratt, who joined us in the Poconos with her mother Janie and partner Fernando.  She just sent out a story that her son Harlin got published about playing chess in prison, inspired by The Queen's Gambit.  Here's the link: The Marshall Project.

So, wish us luck tomorrow on our drive back, and we wish you luck, good health and love in return.