There’s a buzz of chatter coming from the other room. It’s Mary’s Zoom book club who decided to meet in person, for the third time. They’re here for a couple of days, and they found other topics to talk about besides books. Go figure. They’ve known each other, some of them, for almost 70 years.
They did bring wonderful food – cookies, breads, meals, crackers and cheese etc. they can come back. And we took on a little excursion to …. You guessed it, Herman Melville’s home. There’s a book for a book group.
We had our own road trip too over Labor Day weekend. Fortunately, we did not have to wrestle with traffic. We went the opposite direction up to northeast Maine for a reunion of folks who were in Gabon with us 50 years ago. There, too, we did not run out of topics to discuss, as we had a lot of gaps to fill in, and lots of memories to try to dredge up.
It looks like Matthew and Tina checked off another NY state park, this time to the 1000 Islands. Not sure if that is technically a park, but they sure hit the sites: Boldt Castle, Rock Island Lighthouse, Cape Vincent Lighthouse. I need to find out where they stayed because I have always wanted to spend time in this spectacular setting, in the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Annie and Sankhar are back in India. Wow, what a trip they’ve had. Now it’s back to their project with renewed energy and enthusiasm. Italy, Croatia, Portugal, England – I’m sure I missed a country or two.
They didn’t make it up to Scotland, but Joe did. Can you believe he graduated more than 20 years ago? He went solo since his children went back to school, including Luisa, her first day at REAL school.
Out west, Andrew reports on a visit home by Daniel, and a Phish concert that Billy and Myles went to. So, Pop did take us to the New Christy Minstrels one summer.
Down in DC, the pool closed. Summer’s officially over. But Simon is trying out for a new swim team. He, by the way, continues to find ways to amuse his sister, and himself, and the rest of us.
We have done some fall planning, which includes putting on the back burner our scheduled road trip out to Oklahoma. Instead, we will take up our friend Valerie’s offer to join her in Berlin for a week. That’s right, Germany, not Maine. She grew up there and has incredible stories of living through the war and its aftermath before finally coming to the states for graduate school. Forever in her mind are the Gis who showed up at her door with candies. It actually happened.
Another sad anniversary of sorts was the one year that has passed since we lost Johnny, Mary’s brother. Still hard to believe.
Love from up here.
