Saying Goodbye

to 2015

to Joe and Leonor, who were heading south in a UHaul with a load of furniture, in the freezing rain.  They won't have such a nice drive, but they didn't have to drive on Joe's birthday.  Remember those days in Pomfret, when Joe got the big birthday celebration with all of you?  Fun.  It was a quiet celebration yesterday that was going well until the Bengals had to go and spoil his birthday.  technically, though, I think they lost a few minutes after midnight so it wasn't really his birthday.

to Annie and Margaret and Andrew, who left on Sunday.  Margaret and Andrew were on their way to the Meadowlands (still called that?) to watch the obnoxious Jets fans whose team pulled out an overtime win against the Pats.  Annie left later in the day, after she had given both Mary and me tutorials on our computers (thanks) and with a full load in her car as well.  It was so wonderful having everyone home.

But perhaps not as nice as it was for Matthew to be home, as he said goodbye to the hospital and re-hab on Christmas Eve.  Tremendous.  So happy to see all the photos on Facebook that we are re-posting one here.  

Speaking of Facebook, would Pop have loved it?  One side would say, it was not his pencil or typewriter ribbon with carbon paper.  But the other side would say, what a great way to keep up with everyone.  

For example, we had a Facebook debate over whether Love Actually is the best Christmas movie, after Melodie posted a photo of High Grant dancing in 10 Downing Street.  

We had another Facebook exchange after Johanna posted a photo from Grandma and Pop's 50th wedding celebration outside the Princeton chapel.

And, we saw Facebook photos of Jen and Bill on their way to Belize, of Myles and Auden in from of the Christmas tree.  And another one of Peter practicing flyfishing, with a little help from Dasha.  

So, we have to ask the question, if we are doing so well staying in touch on Facebook, perhaps we need a Pops Weekly Letter Facebook page.   Just a thought.  Not that I'm saying goodbye to Pops Weekly Letter, especially after Leonor told me she was now an avid reader.

Hope your time together was wonderful.  It was, up here - we saw Star Wars, we finished a difficult puzzle, walked up the mountain in Pittsfield State Forest, ate a lot of cookies, had a great visit with John and Marilyn who were up from Florida for the holidays, watched the fire, walked D, read newspapers, New Yorkers, and books, and had extended dinners and dinner conversations about...... everything.

So, farewell to 2015 - any reservations for next year yet?

Love from up here.

Thanksgiving and Chicago

It's the most wonderful time of the year.  But it sure crept up on us fast.  It seems a number of you have already gotten your trees and are moving into the spirit.  We have put up our wreath on the garage and near the front door, and that's about it.

Part of the problem is that it has been so mild.  Some are calling this the warmest fall on record.  This time last year we had already paid the snow plow guy a few times to clear the driveway.  And, I keep waiting for the temperature to dip below 50 degrees to put on snow tires.

Anyway, the big news continues to come out of Strong Hospital in Rochester.  Matthew has been climbing stairs, and he's walking without the harness.  That's so terrific, meaning he has worked so hard to get where he is and that he's going to make it. Moreover, he's not lost any of his alertness as he's all over the cookiness of Donald Trump and the new movies as well.  Way to go Matthew (and Tina!)

So, let's pick up the thread with Thanksgiving.  Lots of Facebook photos showed where everyone was.  The Rochester folks took Thanksgiving to the hospital; Melodie and Jeffrey were up for the occasion.  Looks like big crowds in New Jersey and Illinois.  Joe hosted his first turkey dinner, and we had wonderful food.  It wasn't Leonor's first Thanksgiving, but it was the first she hosted.  Wonderful - and their house is coming together so nicely.  I love to think about Thanksgiving conversations around the country, and I bet more than a few had Donald Trump in them.  Just what he wants. Speaking of which, hope everyone saw the Thanksgiving skit on Saturday night live, with the Adele song.  

Margaret and Annie had some excitement on Saturday afternoon as they were sitting outside at a restaurant/popsicle joint just a couple of blocks from home.  Minding their own business, they were interrupted by a gaggle of Secret Service guys who descended on the scene, with the announcement that a special visitor would be coming by in ten minutes, to take part in "small business Saturday."  Given the opportunity to leave, Margaret and Annie (and D, I should add) decided to stay.  And, right on cue a few minutes later, a motorcade pulled up and their new best friend, Barack, and his two, very tall daughters, piled out and went in to order some popsicles.  So much for outdoor studying.  

Last weekend, Mary and I went out to Dundee for a few days - a memorable visit.  Highlights included meeting for the first time Auden, who I am sure we will see on the national women's soccer team or in the Olypmics; she insisted on walking everywhere when we walked to and from town for Santa and for dinner.  Miles is quite the big brother, very responsible and helpful.  Great to see Bill, but we missed Jenn who had a cold.  It was nice to just hang out, watching the momentous Packer game, taking naps, chatting in the kitchen and in the living room, and in front of the college football games and on the porch and on walks.  Lur was busy doing her coursework for her social services degree, and Andrew had a tree crew come over to work on Saturday.  

This time our flights worked out but our car did not.  When we arrived at long term parking, our car did not start and we had to wait an hour before AAA showed up for a jump start.  Another memory, one we'd rather not have, though.

This week, Margaret passed a threshold, completing her coursework for her degree.  She had a couple of presentations and papers, but it looks like she is done with graduate school!  How did she celebrate?  Karaoke, of course.  Which songs would have been appropriate for completing studies?  The Thrill is Gone?  We Gotta Get out of the Place?

Today, Mary is off at the New England masters swimming championships.  A pattern has emerged with these meets.  The closer they come, the more nervous and stressed she becomes.  She goes, does well, and is giddy enthusiastic when she gets home.

Other than that, life has quieted down since all the museum jobs ended in early November.  Still going to UMass a couple of days a week, and I have started a new project, a book, on early industry in Berkshire county.  And, we have been busy with our preparations for returning to Gabon at the end of February.  But, I still have time for a nap!

Hope you all are well and enjoying the season.  With so much prep work, it's hard to remember to enjoy.  Love from up here.

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Let's start with the good news.  Matthew has been in rehab for a week or so, and wrote yesterday that he was standing.  According to David, he's got two sessions of physical therapy every day, morning and afternoon, of multiple hours.  Sounds like a work-out and sounds like he's a conscientious patient.  When we see the photos of him with Donald, we know he has a lot of incentive!!  That's a huge reason to be thankful.

We talked to David this week, who was in Albany and he gave us the updates on Matthew and Tina.  Annie has a new job, sort of.  She's in her second part of her rotation and is joining a new hi-tech division of GE. I have seen some GE commercials where this guy tells his tech friends he's leaving to work for GE and will work on systems to make hospitals and roads work better.  I think that's her new division.  Anyway, she is telecommuting for the time being, before moving to Boston.  Joe has a full plate of work, with a couple of big meetings in December, and continued work on his house.  Margaret is in her final lap of the semester, and it probably seems like it will never end.  But it does, and then you won't know what to do with your time.  

This past weekend, Peter and Janet came up for a little Berkshire chill.  Peter and I went even further north to watch the Princeton-Dartmouth game, that was going well until the last 24 seconds.  I found out that I actually don't mind losing, I just don't like to see the other team's fans celebrating.  Dartmouth won a share of the Ivy title by winning, reminding us that the last time we were here, Dartmouth won and denied us sole possession of the title.  Peter said he would never go to Dartmouth again, at least for a Princeton football game.

Mary and Janet were spared the agony, as they were going to Northampton for a live performance of one of Mary's favorite radio shows - The Moth.  These are short, true narrated stories that are entertaining and enlightening.  Since the football game ended early, we had time to meet our wives for dinner and shopping in Northampton, even though we did not have tickets for the show.

Among our many topics of conversation was hearing the good news that Sean was sworn in as a bona fide lawyer in the state of New Jersey.  You did it!  

The weekend before Marj and Lew came up, to see an old Berkshire friend who had moved to Montana and was back east for a visit.  We are now the recipients of a 51" plasma television, thanks to Lew's intolerance for a little, hardly noticeable discoloration in the screen.  We set it up and watched the Patriots - Giants football game that was once again a thriller.  Heart attack city.

Yesterday, we saw John and Marilyn who had escaped the sunny weather in Florida for some good old fashioned New England November temps (down to 18 degrees this am).  They are both well, with Marilyn full recovered from her knee problems, sp much that she is now playing racquetball. 

We are heading down to Washington for Thanksgiving.  We're going to be testing our new theory for driving this corridor. You can travel on the heaviest drive days of the year as long as you are through the congestion by noon.  So that means an early start on Wednesday and another early one on Sunday to come home. 

And after that, we head out to Chicago for a weekend with the Dundee Dicksons, who are celebrating the good news of another grandchild!!

Love and may you all have a Merry Christmas (aren't we supposed to start before Thanksgiving?)   

Highlights from Dundee

Jen is expecting. Their third.

I took Daniel and a friend to Western Michigan for a visit. We attended the presentation for the Haworth School of Business, which he intends to apply to. Ranked 5th in nation in undergrad BBA. They have close intern relationships with Smuckers, Kellogs, and SC Johnson.

Claire has numerous concerts in Grand Rapids, and Ann Arbor for the Hope woodwinds orchestra. We are really looking forward to seeing her over Thanksgiving.

On Michigan, Kalamazoo College is right on the border of Western Michigan, and an absolutely beautiful campus. Not many like this one.

Lur continues her studies in social work, and I continue my studies in cooking, cleaning, and vacuuming. 

Back to Claire. She has a close friend who visited us this year and plays the sax. She is involved with a foursome of sax players who jam at concerts, and it is an incredible sight to see and hear. 

And, we close with a photo of Lur in her Dundee boosting role from the summer. 

California dreaming and.....

(almost) all the leaves are brown.... and we turn back the clocks this weekend.  An extra hour of sleep will only slightly soften the blow that we are headed into the season of mittens and boots every time we venture outside.  

Time has really stopped for Matthew and Tina.  Through Facebook and phone calls, we have been able to keep up with the ordeal of Matthew's spinal infection that sent him to the hospital for emergency surgery and now a long re-hab.  The postings tell a story of interrupted lives, of small signs for hope and of a wonderful network of friends and family.  David and Paula have spent long hours over at the hospital, keeping him company and even bearing gifts for the nurses taking care of Matthew.  Jeffrey is up there this weekend, and it sounds like he pulled diaper duty for Donald.  It sounds as if there have been a number of complications for Matthew, but we are grateful every time we read a post from him, since we read he's sitting up, and well enough to type.  We especially liked hearing of his "enthusiastic" physical therapy team, and the goal to move to a chair.  We're all pulling for you Matthew.   

In between phone calls with David, we headed to Washington for the weekend, staying with Annie in her new apartment in Queens on the way down.  More spacious and a great neighborhood.  She is contemplating having to move by the end of the year, though.  Then, we headed to lunch in Lawrenceville with Peter, who told us that Janet's brother broke his leg while on a trip to India.  The flight back in a cast must have been excruciating.  Peter later informed us that Sean passed the bar exam.  Congratulations Sean!

In Washington, we stayed at Joe's new house, and he and Leonor have been busy making it a home.  It's on a surprisingly quiet street, for a house in the city.  Leonor cooked us a Portuguese dish for supper one night (wonderful!), and then Mary and I went to our friends, Gerry and Dennis, for Indian food.  The next night we had Eritrean food at Margaret and Andrew's.  Lest you think we need a visa for all our meals, we did go to a bar for hot dogs and wings to watch the Patriots win.  That never gets old, especially against the Jets.  

My summer of work ended this week, with my last days at Hancock Shaker Village. It was a long seven months, more than I wanted in my retirement, but the opportunity to learn so much was in the end worth it.  And now my next project starts, a photo book on industry in the Berkshires.  But I think I will be able to get some naps in while doing that.

We spoke with Andrew a few times, and learned that Lur is also busy, with all her volunteering activities, at the hospital and for a group of Dundee boosters.  We hear as well that Billy is going to be setting up his own company - go Billy and happy birthday, belated.  I also think I jumped the date last week on Daniel's college tour by a few weeks.      

Our trip to Washington coincided with a memorial service for a colleague who I worked with in Peru, the man who went on Jeopardy while we were there and won five consecutive games earning two Corvettes and a boatload of cash.  Chris was a real character, and his daughter, in her remarks, talked of his Friday the 13th phobia, and how he used to send postcards every month saying that "this month Friday the 13th falls on a Tuesday."  A little joy on a very sad day.  Next month, by the way, Friday the 13th actually falls on Friday.

So, it's a little hard to write about this other news when we are preoccupied with Matthew's recovery.  So we'll close with a major league, world series "You gotta Believe" for Matthew.

Love from over here.  

​ 

10 best

Pop's weekly letters had a regular feature, beyond stories of Spag's and haircuts and the dump.  He would regularly mention that they were enjoying one of the 10 best days of the year.  I am not sure how he kept track, if he marked them on the calendar or not, or if had a criteria-based system giving points for weather (temperature, sun, foliage colors, breeze, humidity, sunrise and sunset, dewpoints) or for activities or get-togethers with family and friends or lottery jackpots.  I suspect it was a decision of the gut.

What made me think of this is we are coming off of three of the ten best days here, and my criteria is mostly weather based, but also foliage.  We are at the very peak of the season, a little late due to warm weather.  The colors are tremendous, and seem to surpass last year.  I suspect the same was true for everyone here, from Chicago to DC from Rochester to NYC.  (Do I sound like the Shirelles singing "Dancing in the Streets"?)  How about Florida?  Hope your long weekend was spectacular.    

Last letter mentioned all the birthdays, except for Janet's (today) or Auden, who turned two and whose picture is included here.  Who do you think liked her birthday more?  I think it was equal.

It was a big weekend up here too, that included the world premiere of the movie I have been working on.  Unfortunately, when we turned it on Saturday night to watch, the tv station messed up something and the quality made viewing impossible.  They have since fixed it, but with the nice write-up in the Berkshire Eagle, anyone trying to watch probably got discouraged.  Not us though, we had a dvd and watched it with a group of friends here.  I will try to upload it on to YouTube so you all can sit through the 84 minutes and see what the all the commotion is about.  Not really, but it was a long haul and I'm glad it's finished.

Other activities from my stupid crazy summer are coming to close as well.  Today was my last day at Arrowhead and this week I will finish with the last of the Fulbright applications as the deadline is tomorrow.

It looks like others have been busy as well.  Johanna was off in Paris, and from her postings it sounded like she was staying at the Ritz with all the famous people she was running into.  Nous aussi aimons Paris.  John and Marilyn were off to a different French city, New Orleans and posted photos of cafe and beignets.  Nour aussi aimons les beignets.  We heard that Andrew and Daniel were off to Michigan this weekend to look at colleges.  Margaret and Andrew had a non-French weekend up in Lancaster, and Joe welcomed back Leonore who had stayed on in Portugal for a few weeks with her family and friends after their trip in September.

The garden is producing only a little, but we have yet to dig up the potatoes.  The last of the cherry tomatoes are coming in, and we have pulled up other veggies and many weeds, getting ready for next spring.  

Lots of baseball watching around here, and some great series.  We are here rooting for the Royals and Blue Jays, Mets and Cubs.  Not sure, though, who Mary is rooting for.  Michael Phelps, I believe.

Here's to a happy, full and enjoyable fall.  Love from up here.  

​

Birthday central

Today is Tina's birthday, and yesterday was Paula's birthday.  We spent the first part of the day with Paula and David, before they drove home in order to be there for Tina's big day.  And this week is Johanna's birthday.  Happy birthday to all.

David and Paula took off for a fall swing through Vermont and New York, before landing here for the weekend.  They joined us at Hancock Shaker Village on Saturday where it was country fair, with all kinds of crafts and demonstrations of oval boxes and timber frame building and quilting and...... a talk by John on the Shakers at Hancock.  We went out to eat Saturday night, and found a wonderful Italian restaurant we had never been to.  Another place for the "36 hours in Pittsfield" update that will never appear in the New York Times, but should be on your list of things to do when visiting here.  And we love visits.  And it was great to see David and Paula over here.  They filled us in on their house work, including a new landscaping and walkway in the front of their house.  Next up, they will tackle their kitchen.  Paula also made some copies of family histories, including Uncle All's work that takes the deans back to the 1620s in Taunton Mass.

The previous weekend, Mary and I headed north to Maine where we joined the Dan Boyle family to spread his ashes in parts of the Bar Harbor area that he loved so much.  We started out with a tradition to see the sunrise at Cadillac Mountain, the first spot on the continental U.S. that the sun hits.  It was a beautiful view that the photo included here hardly captures.  But it is worth seeing.  We then went to his plot of land on a lake called Molasses Pond.  There were remembrances and memories of Dan, and catching up with everyone.  And we ate, lots of seafood, lobster rolls, chowders, etc.  Another place to visit, even if it is a long drive.

Phone calls with folks in DC during the week informed us of all the happenings with the Pope and the Chinese Premier, a man whose named is pronounced "she."  It's a little confusing when the news announces talk about "she", and then refer to "she" as "he".  The last premier was pronounced "who" which leads me to think of an update to the Abbot and Costello skit about "Who's on First?"  No, Who's the Premier of China?  

But I digress.  Sounds like Joe, Margaret, Jeff and Melodie all got days off because of the throngs to see the Pope.  I wonder if the same was true for Annie and Johanna in New York.

The temperatures have fallen to the 30s in the evenings here, but the house continues to stay warm.  It's a good thing since we are reluctant to turn on the furnace in September.  But those temps have pretty much made the hillsides full of color where there was just barest of colors last week.  The temps have slowed down the grass growth, but not enough to stop mowing altogether.  And the garden is slowing down its production, with the last of the beans and tomatoes coning in, leaving just the potatoes and carrots and maybe a few onions to harvest.

One more month of busy-ness, and then the seasonal tour guide commitments close down; I've completed two of my six classes for the Lifelong Learning Institute on historic preservation and I should have just another hour of work to finalize my movie about the restoration of the Anthenaeum.  Hopefully, by the next letter I will be able to include a YouTube link so you can watch my first (and undoubtedly last) full length movie.

So, this has been the quickest September on record; and hope that the next month will slow down a little for us to enjoy it.

Hope you all are well; love from up here.