Is it Father's Day?

Actually, it isn't. We're experiencing a little of the post-father's day letdown here.  A full case of the blahs.  It may have something to do with Monday and a storm bringing more rain.

Or, it may have to do with a nice afternoon/evening with David and Paula who stopped by here on their way home from a few days on the Cape.  We had a nice dinner and shared father stories.  Or tried to, if we could have remembered them. We did toast our own fathers, and remembered all they had done for us.

 It sounded like there had been quite a bit of rain out on the Cape, but they were still able to squeeze in a "whale watch" and good meals and walks.  Since I have never been to the Cape, they gave us some suggestions and encouragement for perhaps a September or mid-week visit in the fall.

Annie made it back from the weekend in Washington to see David and Paula.  She had been to Melodie's birthday party on Saturday evening, so when Jeffrey called to do the dutiful check-in, Annie surprised him being up here!

I had nice conversations with both Joe and Margaret as they did their dutiful as well.  More than that, with a surprise picnic table which appeared after my nap on Saturday.  I was not sure if I was still dreaming when I saw the table in the yard.  It will replace the one Peter "loaned" us in 1992 and has many family memories from our porch in Silver Spring to the outdoors here over that extended period.  I wonder how long Peter and Janet had used it.  It was not doing well, as boards were rotting away.

Earlier in the day, Mary and I drove down to Hyde Park, NY and checked off a visit to the FDR home.  We had been passing the signs for years on the Taconic Parkway, but were always in a rush to get wherever we were going.  So, we made this our destination and had a wonderful visit, with a promise to each other that there was more to see and that we would come back.  Our tour guide wondered how many people in the group could relate to FDR's upbringing with tutors at home, horse-riding and governesses and a 21 foot yacht present at the age of 17.  

We commoners found a diner up the road and had a great breakfast/brunch.  So there.  I love Fathers Day.

News from here:  we have a new garden fence.  It is the third since we owned it, and the first one I did not try to install myself.  Our garden is now more protected than Ft. Knox.  Take that groundhogs.  I just wish the vegetables would grow inside.  So much rain that there was actually flooding, which killed the marigold plants.  Oh well.  Hmm.  Maybe a roof?

Other news is that Annie has a summer job.  Two in fact.  Moreover, it looks like she got every job she applied for.  She will have a busy schedule and earn a little before starting classes.  

On the job front, Mary also got a new job, at least until the end of the school year which is this coming Friday.  She is tutoring a handful of students whose second language is English.  One of them is a Chinese girl in kindergarten, who has been in country just a few weeks.  Try to imagine what she's going through.

One of our highlights these past few weeks was dinner with Mary's niece and nephew, her brother Mike's children.  Nice to reconnect, and they are doing well.

This time next week, I will be in Ft. William, Scotland getting ready to start my trek up the Great Glen Way.  I don't know if it's psychosomatic, but my knees are beginning to hurt.  Better rest.

In the meantime, our routine continues, and we are enjoying summer.  We had our first campfire last Friday night, and I raised up enough courage to jump in the lake.  We also went to the movies, Before Midnight, which we liked but were not really 'gaga' over.   

Hope you all are enjoying summer.  Only 365 more days til Father's Day!

We sign out from here wishing you all happy barbecues, with this photo from our archives. Love from over here.    

 

Annie's home

Did you hear the cheering?  She flew into New York on Thursday and stayed there for a couple of days.  Then Saturday, Mary and I drove down to pick her up.  She reminded us of us.  She had a backpack, packed to the seams, and two roller suitcases, similarly packed.  She said she carried all three on the Beijing subway, getting to and from the airport.  Hard, but she has closed out an important chapter of her young adulthood, and those three suitcases are evidence.  

Welcome home.  She's on the job market this summer, and then will head back to NYC to start her organizational psychology program in August.  We drove by Teachers' College at Columbia, and I pointed out the dorm where I spent one summer.  Annie said she had applied for the same dorm!

Annie just missed the visit of our friend, Valerie, from Seattle, who had been here for a few days on a trip east.  We dropped her off at the bus station, as we headed to New York to get Annie.  We did the cultural tour of the county, north, south and center, with Valerie, going to MassMoca for art, to Arrowhead for Herman Melville's story, and then to the Guthrie Center for open mic night.  In between, we ate and talked and hiked a little.  John and Marilyn came over for dinner with Valerie, who they knew from the memorable visit to San Miguel years ago, with Mary's mothers and aunts.

We finally opened up the porch for meals, as last weekend we almost had snow.  Too cold, and it did snow on Mt. Greylock.  My college roommate, Steve Tobolsky and his wife, had come over from Boston for the night, and we thought about having a fire.  We did turn on the heat.  This weekend we wanted air conditioning.  The photo was a panorama trick taken at MassMoca, in front of a Sol Lewitt mural.  Fun.

Mary started a job this week.  A paying job.  She's tutoring a young boy in the 4th grade an hour a day.  She might have another fill-in job until the end of school, and there are several she's seen to apply for.  

I also started a job, of sorts.  If someone had told me last year or 40 years ago that I would be explaining Herman Melville to a paying tour group, I'd have thought it a dream of sorts, more like a nightmare.  But, there I was, giving tours to people last Monday who had come to Arrowhead to get a glimpse of the writer, his work and his life in the Berkshires.  It's actually very interesting, and I have a lot of homework to do to get the story right.

We spoke with David and Andrew who filled us in on happenings out their way.  David and Paula had a birthday dinner for Matthew with Tina and Oliver last week.  That means that Peter and Janet also had a wedding anniversary.  Congratulations and fond memories (and one great photo of a certain sports jacket) from that weekend.

Andrew says that Claire's graduation was terrific, and that she is planning a camping trip in Michigan before school starts.  Daniel has decided to play football this fall, and he has been working out and lifting weights to get ready.  Look out!  Lur has been busy helping her parents.

The next time you see Joe, hopefully he'll be wearing the bow ties that Andrew sent him.  If not, maybe it's because he's got his kilt, which after years of promise since he graduated from St. Andrews and then Tufts, finally arrived last week.

This is Margaret's big week as the orientation programs she's been developing start.  Good luck!

 

Theatre is for everyone

I started to describe theatre for people who are blind, over 30 years ago. The concept of audio description was brand new.  There were a lot of skeptics, and people made extremely insensitive remarks.  But we persevered, and today, Audio Description is not only in theatres, but movie theaters, museums, and national parks.

I have always believed that theatre should be inclusive, not exclusive.  After seeing that a theatre in northern New Jersey paired with a local children's theatre to perform an autism-friendly show, I decided that we needed to do an autism-friendly show at McCarter.

Last night, after months of hard work, involving a wonderful group of McCarter staffers, of making sure that we had everything necessary to ensure a great performance, the Fiasco Theater Company performed "Into the Woods" for an audience of children and young adults with autism, and their families.

A social book was constructed and sent to the various autism services to hand out to patrons prior to last evening's show.  The social book has pictures and descriptions of everything that the patron with autism will encounter at the theatre, so that it would seem familiar and not alien.  We had two rehearsal rooms set aside - a Quiet room, and an Activity room.  We had 10 volunteers from Eden Autism Services who wore blue tee-shirts to identify themselves and carried "goody bags," filled with fruit snacks, popcorn, and fidgets.  Two McCarter staffers stood upfront, one on either side of the stage, holding green glow sticks.  The audience knew from the social book that when the glow sticks were raised, a loud noise was coming.

There was a quite space in the lobby with two bean bags chairs and some more fidgets, and stress balls.  The women's restroom became a family restroom.  We had signs everywhere indicating where everything was.

There was continuous seating - we had people entering the theatre 45 minutes after the show had started, and for once, theatre patrons were allowed to bring food into the theatre.

We had countless meetings with autism groups and had been told that some people might only stay for 10 minutes, but that those 10 minutes were a victory. Two families left during Act I, one about 40 minutes in and another about 1 hour in... Act I is 1 1/2 hours long.  About 25 people left at intermission, but the bulk of the audience stayed through until the end.  Not bad when you realize we started with 145.

This is a pared down version of "Into the Woods." 10 actors play multiple roles.  One of the actors attended a meeting in February with us at the Theatre Development Fund, which has successfully had 6 autism-friendly productions of Broadway musicals.  This actor had worked with children with autism and he was every excited about last night's show.

I have had so many wonderful experiences in theatre.  But I have never experienced the sheer wonder, the joy, euphoria, the high, as I did last night.  I was truly humbled.  I was at the front of the stage during intermission, talking to the two women holding the glow sticks, when the actors came onstage in preparation for Act II.  A young girl, about 12 or 13, saw the actors and ran to the stage, yelling "Jack! Jack!  Where have you been?  Hi Jack, it's me, Annie!!"  And "Jack" said hi to her and said a few words.  Then she saw Cinderella, and said, "Ooh, ooh, look at you!"  And Cinderella spoke to her also.  It was a magical moment.

It is not hard to see how difficult a life this can be for families.  Over and over again, we heard that parents of autistic children cannot go to the theater, they can't go to the movies, because their children are noisy, prone to outbursts and behavior that annoys other people.  How unbelievably humbling it is to watch the parents and their children sit in the theatre, mesmerized by the musical, and know that they did not have to worry about other people complaining.  

The actors cried as they took their bows.  So did all of us who had worked to see this wonderful day come to fruition.

We have next season's play picked out and this one will also include people with developmental disabilities.

See?  Theatre really is for everyone.

Now it starts, Claire

Congratulations.  What a great shot we saw on Facebook of the graduate.  I lie; it wasn't great, it was SPECTACULAR!

We actually see quite a lot on Facebook.  Jeffrey and Melodie are in Texas, Annie ate a burger in Yunnan, and somebody shot themselves while bowling, but since they weren't members of the family, I'll leave that to your Google searches.

We had a short visit south this week, but special.  Hard to believe we were only gone two nights.  First we headed to New Jersey where we joined Peter and Janet at a concert by Mary Chapin Carpenter and Shawn Colvin.  All these years, and we've never seen Mary Chapin play live.  It was wonderful, especially the concept of the two singers on stage exchanging songs and conversation topics as if they were in their living room.  We had a nice dinner a Thai restaurant and a chance to catch up on all matters, that night and at breakfast the next day.  We heard that Johanna is spending a week at Martha's Vineyard and Sean was heading into his last exam.  He has landed a summer job in northern NJ.  Peter and Janet are planning a trip out to Seattle this summer.

We got up the next morning and went to DC, where we had a great barbecue with Joe, Margaret, Andrew and Joe's housemate Greg.  Mary's friend, Gerry, at whose house we were staying joined us for a locavore sausage meal, where guess who ate too much?  Just one person.  Margaret made brownies with home-made caramel.  Guess who had two?  What's ll this talk about a cleansing diet?  Joe had just returned from an extended trip to India, filled us in on what he did there.  Margaret and Andrew recounted their hair-raising story of an intruder.  Everyone's busy at work.  

We had planned to spend the weekend there, but headed home on Friday as one of Mary's cousins passed away and the funeral was Saturday.  Patrick Hayes, who at 62, died of a heart attack.  In his service the priest noted that "out of weakness comes strength, and strength helps to deal with weakness."  Pat had been struck with a debilitating illness for the last several years, but he has a large and close family whose strength was everywhere evident.

Danny had come up for the funeral, and we saw John and Marilyn there as well.  They went from the church right to Lowell, as Colleen graduated, with a Masters in nursing, on Saturday,  Congratulations Colleen.  What a long haul, of work and study and showing dogs!  

Mary is at a yoga class right now; I walked five miles today with a pack on my back to get ready for the great Scotland adventure, which starts in a little more than a month.  I have to be in better shape.  This week, I go to a training for volunteer guides at the Herman Melville home in Pittsfield.  Hmm.  When I read Moby Dick, in September 1976, waiting for school to start in Lastourville Gabon, I never thought I'd a) be serving as a guide at his home, where that was and b) have finished that book.  Uggh.

Such are the twists and turns.  You got some?  

Love from up here.   

Green (almost)

No, not the color of money, but the yellow-fresh green on the trees, in the woods, in the lawn that's growing too fast.  I've already mowed.  And it's ready for another cutting now.  Too early to say uggh.

It's a travel month.  We had a surprise phone call today from New Delhi.  Joe called.  His meetings are over, and he's staying a little but longer for a little tourism.  Yesterday he went to the Taj Mahal, which he said he went to with high expectations, but even those were exceeded.  He also spent $40 for two drinks.  Lots of contrasts, but he says he's really enjoying it.  He'll be back on Monday morning.  He seems to have forgotten his nightmarish travel over.  Hope it's better coming back.

Annie is back in Yunnan, after a week-plus in Malaysia renewing her visa.  She sent us some photos; this one here is of a very ornate temple from a town outside Kuala Lumpur called Melaka.  Margaret is heading to Boston this weekend for her first ever visit to Fenway.  A pilgrimage!

And, we have a nice account from Peter and Janet about their spring trip to Texas.  Sounds great.  We think David and Paul are in New York city right now, taking in a play among other delights.   We had hoped maybe we had a reason to go there, but nothing came of it, so we stayed home.  Happily.  All this travel by you all is wearing us out.  

John and Marilyn are back from Florida, pretty excited by their new digs in Daytona.  Something to look forward to during the blah months in late fall and early spring up here.  Looks like a lot of fun.

Last weekend, Marj and Lew came up for Saturday night.  We had a nice dinner out with Mary's high school friends, one of whom was celebrating her 60th.  Looks like I am the last one to fall.  While the "girls" were up at MassMoca, Lew and I went to a talk by a historic restoration contractor and architect, who are piecing together what they think is the oldest barn in the country, dating back to 1697.  Pretty amazing.  This guy has a workshop in which he is putting back together two barns, the other one checks in in the 1790s. 

Mary is taking a couple of courses at the local community college, one of which is called "Flora and Fauna in the Berkshires."  She has been out taking hikes and is ready to be a tour guide for anyone coming up.  Today we did a little bit of the Appalachian Trail, and looked at the new growth in the woods.

She also had her swim team over for a potluck supper on Sunday evening, a cinco de mayo festival of sorts.  Well, we had margaritas, and while they may not have met Peter's Texas standards, it's hard not to enjoy one of those.  

Looking ahead, we see Sean's birthday and Claire's high school graduation!  And a very happy day to all the mothers! Yippee.

Love from up here.  

Hail, the Lone Star State!

I'm a little late, but here are a few highlights from our trip to Texas. We flew into San Antonio, spent a couple days there, drove around the Texas Hill Country for a few days and then went down to Houston. We spent a day driving along Galveston Bay and Island. We then drove back to San Antonio for our flight home.
1. Debbie and Rod Barnes. They have a nice guest room and pool outside, they serve up a really nice barbecue dinner, and daughter Jennifer, son-in-law Ron Jones and grandson Parker all live nearby.
2. Jennifer Barnes Jones and Ron Jones. They joined us at Debbie's for dinner. Jen was a little stressed out about her new job, but they are a really sweet couple (especially considering that Ron is an FBI agent!) and Parker is a neat kid.
3. Sarah Barnes Stellges and Brandon Stellges. They took us out to a REAL Mexican restaurant, where I had the absolute best Margaritas I've ever had. (First ones, too.) Sarah is well along in her pregnancy and we had a really delightful evening with them. We had lunch the next day and went into a Lucchese Boot shop – the least expensive pair was $775. That's about as much I have paid for all the shoes I have bought in my entire life. (Almost.) But Sarah gave us a recommendation for another store which was on our way out of San Antone and I got meself a mighty fine pair of Tony Lamas – and a Lucchese belt, which Janet picked out.
4. The LBJ Ranch in Hill Country, along a river spelled "Pedernales" but which everyone pronounces "purrden-alice." It's a moving visit.
5. Riverwalk in San Antonio. Mobbed (including many cadets from a nearby Air Force base), but worth it. We had dinner one evening in SA and went back for our last dinner.
6. Alamo? Meh. But south of SA is Mission San Juan, a well-done Park Service site which educates you well about these missions, which were designed to domesticate the Native Americans so as to settle the area, since not enough Spanish could be persuaded to come to the New World.
7. Hill Country. Pretty. Very pretty. Lots of bluebonnets. Almost every river and creek bed was bone dry. They really have a drought problem.
8. Hill Country wineries. I had no idea there are so many, and they use Texas-grown grapes. As is the case with so many small wineries, the locals get all the good stuff. We had some truly marvelous wine.
9.  We decided the fool-proof way to foment an armed rebellion in Texas would be to prohibit (a) pickup trucks and (b) fences.
10. Galveston, on the Gulf. It's getting more built up and touristy, but the views of the Gulf are pretty amazing. We had lunch in a great little honky-tonk crab shack right on the water. Gives new meaning to the term "eat local."
11. Houston traffic. Bad, bad, bad.
12. Hugh and Judy Thompson. Hugh was a roommate (for one year) and good friend at Princeton, but we've had no contact since graduation. They served up a nice dinner at their house, just 15 minutes from Debbie and Rod.
13. LBJ Houston Space Center? A real bust, all Disney-fied. Phooey.
14. Fredericksburg, in the center of Hill Country. A town settled by Germans. First night: the worst sauerbraten I've ever had. Second night: much better sauerbraten.
15. Rod Barnes. You gotta love this guy. In my foolishness, I had thought we would take three of those wines back on the plane. Oops, 3 oz. limits on liquids. We didn't want to check any luggage, so Rod offered to pack up the wine (and two glasses) and ship them to us. They arrived a week later so hugely armored that a direct hit from Kim Jong-Un wouldn't have done anything.

I'd definitely go back. Thank you Debbie, Rod, Sarah, Brandon, Jennifer, Ron, Hugh and Judy.

News flash from Illinois

Rumor has it that Bill and Jen have posted on Facebook news that they are expecting another child.

That is WONDERFUL, FANTASTIC, even!

Love