Saturday, July 17, 2021

July is flying by

Lots of news in the first weeks of full-on summer, but the arrival of the Brazil folks tops the report this week.  Joe came back for a week of work in Washington and then met up with Leonor and the boys a week later io Newark to drive them up to ….. Pittsfield!  I think the trip highlight was a tour of the cockpit that Thomas managed to charm out of the pilot. 

Joe stayed with Margaret and Andrew in DC and met for the first time his nephew, and Jeff and Melodie came over for an evening get-together.  At some point along the way, Simon got to meet their dog and there are precious photos of Simon with Hopper.

We packed it in this week.  There was baseball, swimming, 'man overboard' in the hammock, cake making, trip to a farm and ice cream, story time, throwing rocks, baby pool splashing, tractor driving, napping, of course, and shopping.  It was almost a washout as the first few days were full of heavy downpours.  We even had to turn the heat on for basement sleeping. Then the sun came out, just like at Camp Granada.

The shopping part reminded us of when we used to come home and help the local economy by loading up on items we couldn't find or were just too expensive.  Let's just say that I hope you all own Apple stock.

Out in Illinois, Andrew and Lur got back from a glorious, relaxing week at Green Lake, where they met up with a former Ripon professor.  Claire joined them for a couple of days, and then again for Andrew's birthday.  She is spending her summer on macrame projects.  Her roommate is moving out, but rather than seek a new place herself, she is content to keep her current abode for the time being.

Speaking of moving, I saw on some social media platform that Johanna is moving, this time to a Harlem address.  Correct?  I have been known to get social media posts wrong, as I congratulated Janet on her retirement when in fact she was commenting on a colleague retiring.  Now I know how some fake news gets started.  Right here on my keyboard. 

Also, I am wondering if I ever mentioned that Johanna will be starting a masters degree program at Northwestern in the fall, in communications.  Congrats.

Speaking of courses, Annie has started a leadership training/coaching class which will take up several weekends over the next few months.  She also celebrated her birthday, and we did as well, with a Zoom call, and then a birthday cake here, made by Mary and Thomas.  Annie and Sankar had a fun weekend camping in Tennessee.

There were a couple of birthdays coming up – Mary, Everett and Thomas.  We have celebrated those in the Poconos in the past, and hopefully in the future again.  Speaking of which, this was the weekend we would have been in the Poconos.  I checked the weather there today, and it calls for rain tonight.

More on the travel front, John and Marilyn took a road trip to Tennessee and ran into the crowds eager to get out from pandemic, that we have all been hearing about. They had to cut short their vacation.

We ran into the same crowds in Boston when Mary had her one year follow up medical visits.  All is well.

Other excitement this week had to do with championship soccer in Europe and South America.  What a way to end a game – penalty shots.  It just doesn't seem right.

Today, we are all packing up and heading for a week at the Jersey shore, down by Atlantic city.  We'll be able to see what drew Uncle Bob and Aunt Ruth there for so many years.  Forecast has no rain.

Hope you all are well, love from up here.


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