Silver linings

I was checking in with my neighbor the other day, and when I mentioned how eerie this whole pandemic is, his response was: "I don't know; there isn't much traffic."  OK, despite the fact that there is never much traffic around here (except if you're trying to go see James Taylor at Tanglewood on July 4,) he did have a point.  There is even less traffic than normal.

And the traffic was very light driving back and forth to Washington DC to see Simon.  And Margaret and Andrew.  We made it back to Pittsfield in a record 6 hours and 15 minutes.  Probably had something to do with the fact that we only stopped once, for gas, bathroom and coffee all in one sequence. 

But, there are other silver linings. 

a) We have a new best friend: Zoom.  While our face-to-face social interactions with friends have wound down to zero, we are taking advantage of Zoom, and with our stimulus check, we even found a little cash to upgrade so we can keep talking past 40 minutes.  So, we went to Easter mass on Zoom.  I've reconnected with Lawrenceville friends, one who I haven't seen since 1993. And we had Easter family time together, at least for a while, with Brazil and Oakland and Washington DC.  Zoom is also helping me take a couple of classes through the lifelong learning program. 

b) Did someone say stimulus check?  Yes, we did get ours, and it was direct deposited so we didn't have to see you-know-who's name written on our check.  Bonus. 

c) Our tv viewing habits have changed, to look more like our reading habits. We start a show (like Homeland new season) and someone recommends another show, so we start that one (like Victoria) and then someone else recommends another one (like Unorthodox.)  So, like our bedstands that have half-read books piled up, our Netflix and Amazon queues for "Continue Watching" are getting longer.  I forgot to mention Narcos and Ken Burns baseball.  What's in your queue, besides 90 day fiancé?

d) We are trying to plan our meals better and use what's in the cupboard more.  So, instead of popping in at the store to get half and half, and then Swiss cheese the next day, we wait and get them both at the same time.  Novel, right?

e) I don't feel so guilty about mindless, addictive cell phone games like solitaire and bridge.  I'm getting even better at cribbage, Johnny.

f) Mary's cleaning out closets, with a focus on sewing drawers, baskets and boxes.  She's found a number of projects that Grandma was working on, including the sewing basket pictured here that you all will recognize.

g) And then there's outdoor spring clean-up, guitar playing, Gabon virtual projects, hiking (or extreme social distancing, as my walk to the beaver pond recently) and I can't leave out naps. 

h) We appreciate those who work hard at stores and take-out and essential food production services more.  I even said thank you to the hardware store check-out clerk the other day.  Who does that, except in coronavirus times?

i) And we can't say enough about all those health care people now, including the nurses in our family.  I understand Tina is working in the in-take section at the hospital so is having to do some triage for infected people.  (I hope I have that right, even though I wish it were wrong.  Stay safe.) 

j) we are reuniting with our kitty, who's unaccustomed to seeing us around so much.  And thank you Timmy for watching kitty while we were gone.

k) we're trying out new fashions, at least in facemasks (Margaret photo).

It's not all silver linings, we know.  We heard that Johanna has delayed wedding plans; that some are out of work; that Mountain Springs may not happen this year.  We have not heard, though, that anyone in the family has been sick, thankfully.  I'm sure I'm not alone to worry with every little tickle in the throat, allergic sneeze or asthma cough.

Stay safe everyone, and healthy - and far away, or at least six feet.

Love from up here.

 

What did you do during Coronavirus 2020, Simon?

Simon James Dickson Siddons won't remember what he did, but he'll always have a story. As will Margaret and Andrew. And we'll always remember the year he was born.

The doctor had told Margaret there was no guarantee that there would be beds in the hospital on her due date, so they wanted to induce a week early. They went to the hospital Sunday night. And waited. And waited. And then Margaret went into real labor Tuesday in the wee hours, and Simon was born about 8:30. PM, that is. 8 lbs, 2 oz, 22 inches.

And everyone was healthy and happy. They came home on Thursday, which is only two days ago. Simon looks like he's starting to settle into his routine of sleeping, eating and pooping and peeing over everything as soon his diaper comes off. Speaking of diapers, Andrew is out right now on a diaper run, as Simon has used up all the littlest sizes. Hope there's more diapers than toilet paper supplies in the stores.

We had come down on Monday evening to help with the kitties. Jeff and Melodie were watching the dog. We went over to pick up D on Wednesday morning. In the pouring rain, we shouted from a safe distance but didn't linger. They seem well, and working as best they can from home. One thing I will say about the stay at home orders, it sure is easier to get around the crowded streets of DC. Give me the traffic any day.

Andrew's parents came down from Lancaster area yesterday for a quick visit to see their first grandchild. Exciting. And yesterday evening, we called down to Brazil on FaceTime to check in. They could only see Simon's ear sticking out from behind the blanket/snuggly get-up that I've never seen before but seemed to be working on keeping him calm and comfortable.

So, we're pretty much on a world-wide snow day for weeks. No baseball, no March madness (someone the other day playing basketball outside said it was March sadness). We see your news on social media about walking and following the news and maybe even playing games and binging Netflix. People around here are gardening and doing odd house chores and getting packages delivered. We tried to order Lysol wipes from Amazon, and their famous next-day service advised us we'd be getting them on May 22.

Mary's had a couple of Zoom meet-ups with her swim team friends; Leonor found an app called house-party and we did that last week. Annie and Sankar called in from their hike up some remote hillside outside of San Francisco.

Andrew and Lur continue their outings to check on her parents; Peter and Janet have taken to long drives, and realize that if this is what retirement is like, they're ready to keep working. David, Matthew and I just managed to squeak in a Shaker box workshop before the shutdowns really took hold. Jeffrey had to cancel at the last minute since a colleague tested positive. Matthew is looking great, making good progress on his health comeback. David must have had a quiet birthday since gatherings of more than 50 people were banned.

Down in Florida, John and Marilyn even gave up going to the pool to stay healthy. And we hear Sean has temporarily relocated to Dallas, where Erin is wrapping up her fellowship. Must be a different kind of fellowship this year. I suspect Johanna and Cameron will also always remember the year they married as their plans must be up in the air.

Thankfully, the nurses in the family are still working, putting themselves at risk, but helping everyone else. And, Margaret and Andrew sang the praises of their nurses during their stay.

And, on that note, welcome to the family, Simon.

Same planet, same month

Hard to believe. Just a week apart, but a few degrees of latitude.

We left the cold and snow and the kitty and headed south. By the time we got to Washington, we had shed our coats and mittens and turned off the heat in the car. By the time we got to North Carolina, we had put on the air conditioner. And by the time we got to Daytona we were wearing sandals and swimming outside.

Tomorrow we'll be home but not sure if we return to snow.

What we do return to is a greying demographic that is cancelling things left and right. With seven Covid 19 cases in the county, we're going to lean on the cautious side. As I'm sure all of you are.

Anyway, along the way we checked in twice (going and returning) on the parents to be and all is well. Exciting. They are taking care of last minute house rearranging, including tearing down the wall between their kitchen and dining area. Looks fantastic.

We took full advantage of John and Marilyn's hospitality to spend five nights in their very comfy, easy house. We went to see manatees and a play (not at the same time), went to the beach three times, ate healthy at their house and not so healthy in local joints, and played games. I remember playing cribbage but forgot the other game we played. Most of all, we covered a lot of territory chatting.

Stops in Chapel Hill and Asheville helped break up the drive and allowed us to check in with Peace Corps and Princeton friends. And in DC we also met up with the man responsible for this wonderful courtship starting in Gabon by playing a little matchmaker. We hadn't seen him since 1986.

We heard from the Fairport folks a couple of times to make final plans for Shaker woodworking workshops this weekend in New York. All is well in Fairport and they too have seen their share of snow.

Down in Brazil, Leonor is getting ready for her trip to Lisbon this week with Thomas. They have been on a couple of outings to pretty spectacular sites near Brasilia, including one very tall waterfall.

Out in Dundee, Andrew and Lur have been sticking close to home, taking care of Lur's parents. They did go over to Michigan for a band concert directed by Claire!

One month from now - and a few days - Johanna and Cameron will marry. Big day, happy day.

Annie has also been taking planes, careful to wipe down her area thoroughly. She was in New Orleans for a bachelorette party and earlier in Colorado for a ski trip.

We did early voting before we left, and later that night saw the last debate. We would have voted differently after the debate. But then the candidate we wanted to vote for dropped out by Super Tuesday so we felt better about our vote. So, with that info, can you figure out who we voted for?

Happy St Patrick's Day everyone. Love, from the road.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy President's Day.  What are you doing for President's Day?  I'm reading Michelle Obama's memoir, Becoming.  I want to pass along one quote: "Part of our role, as we understood it, was to model reason, compassion, and consistency."  Oh my.  Sounds so distant.

Now that I got that off my chest, hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day, with chocolate and flowers and kisses.  One thing you probably didn't have were those little candied hearts, which were made in our fair state, by the New England Confectionary Company, better known as NECCO.  Gone.  Out of business.  Oh well.

So, here's a tale of two cities.  Joe and Leonor and Thomas traveled to Rio for the weekend, to sit by the beach and take in the names we all have heard of but didn't know they were real places: Copacabana (I thought that was a Barry Manilow song) and Ipanema (I knew there was a girl from there.)  Looks like they're having fun.

Mary and I went in the opposite direction, back to Ottawa, but also found water, or at least its frozen version.  We went skating and skiing, saw an old friend, visited the ByWard market bakery more than once, saw ice sculptures, went to a few pubs, and reacquainted ourselves with -6 degree (Farenheit) weather.  Even colder factoring in wind chill.  Every place, we thought of you all, since almost every reader of these letters visited us there.

Looks like others have opted for the warmer climes.  We see that Tina and Donald have headed south to Florida, and enjoyed Donald's first plane ride.  And, we also note that Brian, Kara and Sage are in Daytona, visiting John and Marilyn.  We'll be beating a path down there in a few weeks to escape winter up here.  

Also, on Facebook, was news that Janet and Johanna went dress shopping for the big day - April 10.  Exciting.  

It was also a memory week when we traveled to Rhode Island for Maura's 50^th birthday party.  We spent the night with Marj and Lew, and then headed over to Westerly for the shindig.  On the way, we stopped at Charlestown Beach, but didn't see you guys.  Windy and cold, but always nice to see the ocean.  Maura had a nice group of friends, and we saw Steve's family and, of course, Elsie.  We also had a chance to catch up with Mary Fort.

On the health front, Mary is recovering, ever so slowly.  Her parasite treatment is finished, and the swelling mysteries have disappeared.  Elbow, hand and shoulder are working their way to full use, after a year of physical therapy, with strict attention to exercises at home.  She's determined.  She is back in the pool, but not with the team.  That's next.  No, next is a doctor's appointment in Boston this week to take blood and see if the parasites are still around.  Her doctor convinced me to get tested as well.  Uh-oh.

What else?  We saw a couple of Oscar nominated films, Parasite and 1917, both recommended.  I finished my exhibit on the centennial of woman suffrage, and it is up at the library until the end of March, before it goes to BCC and then to another arts center.  And, we've joined a weekly bridge game, or at least I've gone once.  It was fun.

So, we passed the midway point through winter, and we're as close to daffodils as we are to last Christmas.  Hooray.

Love from up here.  

Things Fall Apart

Things fell apart this past weekend, or at least our plans fell apart.  Flu and colds got in the way.  

We were heading down to Washington to take in a number of events:  Leonor's swearing-in as a U.S. citizen,  Margaret and Andrew's baby shower and to meet up Annie who was also coming in for the shower.  
The good news is that Leonor passed her citizenship test, but instead of waiting a couple of days for the swearing in, the immigration officers told her she had to be sworn in that very day.  Joe and Thomas made it over for the ceremony.  We were still in Pittsfield, so we missed it, and will still have to wait to go to our first citizenship ceremony.  Joe took a video, and not surprisingly, it was moving with 25 people from 13 different countries getting sworn in.  Guess which song was played?  "Proud to be an American."

Then, on our way down the next day, we got a call from Margaret saying that Andrew was at urgent care and had the flu. And, yes, he had had the flu shot.  She said she wasn't feeling too hot either. Since we were supposed to be staying with them, we quickly made other arrangements, staying one night at the Dacor Bacon house (a Foreign Service club of sorts) and then over to Mary's friend Gerry's house for a couple of nights.
Then, Leonor got sick, with an earache and a cold.  Margaret's symptoms turned out to be a cold.  Meanwhile, we were heavily investing in Airborne and Zicam.  Joe had to cancel Leonor's celebratory "Proud to be an American" cocktail event at Ebbet's Grill.

Could it get worse?  Yes, Jeff and Melodie got sick, though I think Jeffrey worse.  That cemented the decision by Johanna and Cameron to take a pass on joining us for Margaret's shower.  They were going to stay with Jeff and Melodie.

Was that the end of the thwarted plans?  Almost.  How would you like to be sitting next to someone on a plane who is looking for the vomit bag?  Annie took the red eye in from the west coast, and felt faint and nauseous after a couple of hours.  She informed the stewardess (I think there's a new name for them) that she wasn't feeling well, and, oh by the way, she had stopped in Wuhan, China on her way home from Japan two weeks earlier.  The stewardess confidently assured her it was probably just a lack of food and water, and replenished Annie who fell back asleep and woke up fine by the time she landed.

So, did it spoil our plans?  Absolutely not.  We adjusted, enjoyed our time babysitting with Thomas (Air and Space Museum and Zoo, as well as Peruvian chicken) and enjoyed our time hanging out with everyone.  Margaret and Andrew rallied for the shower, for which Andrew's mother and father and a nice set of local friends attended.  Melodie came to the shower, but she couldn't wake up Jeff whose cold let him in full recovery mode: asleep on the couch.  Which begs the question - Melodie why aren't you in the photo? Also not in the photo was Kathleen who decided to take the risk of attending, but she was staying with friends elsewhere.

We all congregated for a nice brunch on Sunday before we made the long drive home.  The good news is that Airborne and Zicam work.

By the time we got home, Lenor and Thomas were back in Brasilia, Annie was on her way to Oakland, Joe was in Virginia for a week worth of security training following the shower, complete with defensive driving, fire drills, scary videos and dire scenarios.  Margaret and Andrew were fast asleep, the adrenaline having departed.  

Still fun to see everyone, even if plans go awry.

Love from up here.  Happy February!  What will the groundhog say?

Hibernating

Forgive me for dreaming of spring.  The days seem just a little bit longer, as it's still light out at 5pm.  There's only one little pile of snow in the yard.  And, from what I see of national weather reports, everyone enjoyed a bit of no coat weather over the weekend.  I worked outside, and we went to a "Four Freedoms" march in Pittsfield with just a sweater on, and one of the speakers reminded us that the first march took place three years ago in 12-degree weather.  

Other than that, I tell people we're pretty much just hibernating up here.  With no trip to Gabon this year, we have a little extra time on our hands.  Our calendars have whole days with nothing scheduled.  Mary has been in the "tidying up" mode, and her desk and closets are looking pretty organized.  We remind ourselves, pretty much on a daily basis, where we were a year ago, with Mary incapacitated because of back pain.  Speaking of health, Mary has started her parasite treatments, and so far so good.  No negative reactions.  

One more health issue, involving Mary's brother Michael's grandson.  Michael was struck by meningitis, and he fell into a coma and was in the hospital for over a month.  He is now out, and in rehab, slowly working to get back both mental and physical functions he lost.  He was young, barely 25, with a partner and two children.

Paula won a silent auction bid for a photographer, who they arranged to come over on Christmas Day and take photos of the whole family (which she later posted on Facebook.)  They're really quite good, of everyone, and I include one here.  

Word from Dundee is that Andrew and Lur took in Hamilton, in the next to last night of its scheduled run.  He said some of the actors looked a little emotional during the curtain call.  And, they joined the acclamations for the show.  Daniel joined them for dinner before the show.  Study the photos above (from our trip in December to Illinois, and see who's taller - Daniel or me.

Peter was here for a night, driving a little further from the Litchfield CT court where he is working on a pretty sordid case involving the Hotchkiss School.  He told us a little more of Johanna and Cameron's wedding plans, but nothing yet for publication.  Happy photo above, from Facebook.

News from Brazil is there are many words coming out of Thomas' mouth, in both languages.  He is on extended summer vacation from his pre-school.  Santa, or Papa Noel, came a little late as his pouches (diplomatic) were re-routed through Lisbon.  C'mon elves!

Some of those pouches had birthday presents for Joe, and Margaret and Jeffrey also celebrated birthdays.  Happy days.

Annie and Sankar got back from their trip to Japan, on a trip that started when she came here before Christmas.  She had an unscheduled layover in Hawaii and went to the beach.  Joe said when he gets delayed, it's usually in Newark.  Anyway, she's back and getting reacquainted with her kitties that a neighbor kindly watched for her. 

 
Finally, Mary has joined a bridge class, and one of the teachers was Colleen's son, Robbie.  He is heading down to Daytona next week

.  
And, this is football season.  W pass along a Facebook post that someone's child asked if there would still be a Super Bowl if the Patriots weren't playing.

That's a wrap.  Love from up here.  

Home for the holidays

Merry Christmas. And we were not home for the holidays. We had a wonderful Christmas at Margaret and Andrew's who opened up their home to the Dickson chaos that we bring wherever we go. (Just ask about a certain dishwasher.).

Annie had arrived from the west coast on Friday evening and then we drove down Monday. Andrew's mother and father joined us for a truly great dinner prepared by Margaret and Andrew. Ask Margaret for her ginger and molasses cake recipe.

It's been a while since the last letter so there is a lot of news. Big news. First off, Annie shared a text she got from Johanna that had a picture of her with an engagement ring! That is really great news. Her fiancé is named Cameron and we await details of wedding plans. And Johanna is now a resident of Brooklyn.

The other big news is Leonor is pregnant, and Thomas is expecting a younger brother, due at the end of June. He even pointed to his mother's stomach when we asked where is the baby!

And there's news from Illinois. Not weddings or births but we did go out in early December to visit. We decided this to take in downtown Chicago for a couple of nights and we packed it in, going to the play Hamilton (recommended), a couple of museums, and long walks. Yes, the weather cooperated. We also invited ourselves to Daniel's salon, The Gentleman's Cooperative. Very fancy. And, the next day I went back and Daniel cut my hair.

We took the train out to Dundee and spent a couple of days with Andrew and Lur. They are real hosts - we went Christmas tree shopping and then to a church lunch and fair. We went to a concert with a group called Tower of Power who I vaguely remember from the 70s. They were really great, and not just because they're from Oakland. Funk and jazz and dance. Lively.

We also saw Billy and their children, Myles, Auden and Elliot. They came over for dinner and they entertained us. Joy.

After that, we headed to Greenwich for Aunt Georgia's memorial service. A little like old times, catching up with cousins Rell and Hope, except for the solemn occasion. It was nice to see Peter and David and Janie there as well. I remember Grandma and Pop used to get together with their Connecticut brothers around Christmas. A new tradition, for a night? Meet somewhere in between?

And, you know when you don't write for a month, there's still more news. We spoke with Joe and Leonor several times, as they are settling into their new home in Brazil. Their effects have not yet arrived and even Santa was slow through the diplomatic pouch. They are off today at a nearby resort to spend Joe's birthday. (Remember those events at Pomfret. That was fun.)

John and Marilyn came north for the holidays and spent Christmas with Kara and Brian and Sage, and their clan came east for the day.

Timmy came over for dinner a couple of times, once when Annie was here.

Some sad and concerning news. Young Mike Boyle is in the hospital with a serious out of meningitis. He's been unconscious for over a week and there's no way to know what lies ahead yet. And, a friend, here in Pittsfield, our age, passed away suddenly and shockingly. I guess that's our age but you never expect it so close. We count our blessings every day.

Love from up here and happy new year! What's your resolution for the new decade?