Summer fun

Happy Memorial Day!  The official start of summer.  And it looks as if the Dickson diaspora did summer-y things to celebrate, on the east coast, on the west, and in between; in the northern hemisphere and the southern.   

We saw Annie and Sankar sailing and bike riding; we also saw Bill and Jen and their family heading out for a camping trip; Tina and Matthew and their boys did their 15 miles on the Erie Canal; Thomas and Joao went to school (because it's not a holiday in Brazil) which gave their parents the day off with Luisa; Margaret and Andrew and Simon went to a Baysox baseball game; Janet and Johanna visited a little boy in Maryland.  Nearby, the lake was packed with boats and swimmers and I'm pretty sure I could smell all the barbecues while I was ……

Mowing the lawn.  But, hey nothing wrong with that.  Except that my ride-on mower wouldn't start.  More steps.  But, Memorial Day around here, after the parade honoring those who gave their lives for the country, means finishing all the garden chores, specifically transplanting and sowing the new seeds.  This year, hopefully, you'll get to read about tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, beans, zucchini and lettuce.  Mary's flowers are already giving us color.

And tonight, I'll be at Fenway Park to watch "YOUR CINCINNATI REDS" take on the home team.  Mary is going to stay home, but she assures me she'll be watching the game looking out for two old men catching foul balls in their beer cups.  I'm going there with Charlie, and we may be the only ones in the park who remember the 1975 World Series, but I can assure you this year, there won't be a repeat of those two teams in the Series.  At this point could be a Mets-Yankees affair.  Anyone a fan of those two teams?  

Back to Brazil, where there was an extravaganza to celebrate John's second birthday; no longer is he Baby John.  We did a Zoom call with Margaret and Annie and everyone, and we're actually getting better at singing Happy Birthday and Parabens over the split-second delayed internet medium.  John looked exhausted until he saw his new toy kitchen.  He got a second (or third or fourth) wind and started a whole bunch of recipes and cleaning right away.

Also, in Brazil, or rather Portugal, Leonor's mother went home to Lisbon this week, meaning they are now without instant grandmotherly help for the first time in three months.  Obrigado, Patricia.

Andrew and Lur hit the road before Memorial Day and traveled up to Michigan to see the final concert of the year at Claire's school.  They too said they just finished planting everything in their community garden at the hospital.  

Speaking of hospitals, Mary got through her bout with Covid without needing a hospital stay.  She was bedridden for a few days, mostly with fatigue.  She kept saying how grateful she was for the vaccine.  Me too, as I somehow managed to avoid the illness, testing negative three times that week.  We have postponed our trip to DC until this weekend.  

Covid also affected Omie and Larry, our friends from Mexico who came east from Seattle and got sick along the way.  They quarantined before getting here, though, and had no symptoms at all.  So, we were able to enjoy their stay, museum-ing and eating and drinking and not even nearly exhausting all topics on our way through the Berkshires.   

 
Tomorrow June, the perfect occasion for Mary to lament the passing of summer.  

Love from up here.