Spookiness

Lots to report.  First birthdays. Way to go Billy and Claire and Kathleen.  Another year, another cake, another special day that’s all yours.

Next, Halloween. Have there ever been a weekly letter composed on this scary, sweet day?  Yes, and it didn’t take me long to find one. In fact, a momentous one, Halloween 1976 where Pop reported that they had found a house in Pomfret Center to buy. No mention of trick or treaters, but he did start by wishing everyone Happy Halloween, and then added a line, after telling us about the house they saw: “We have been so excited and happy that we've gone literally goony.”  Goony happy? 

Anyone else goony happy today? Lots of photos of celebrations around the family world. Here, we don’t expect any trick-or-treaters, but that doesn’t stop me from buying candy, just in case.  Just in case I want to devour it all after 8pm.

And we can do a short report on Berlin, short since we’ve spoken to many of you already and this could be repetitious. The overriding takeaway is that we were fortunate to have joined our friend Valerie who grew up in Germany before coming to the U.S. for graduate school and then staying to work at the State Department. Born in 1937, she witnessed a hot war and destruction, and then a cold war and division. We couldn’t see the city that she saw, but we heard the stories. What was most interesting to me were the vestiges of the wall, or lack thereof.  We stayed a couple of blocks from the Brandenburg Gate and the holocaust memorial. Quite moving. We ate great food, probably not healthy food, but I loved it.  And Mary and Valerie had their fair share of draft lager!

We heard from Joe who was actually contemplating buying a ticket to join us for the weekend. That would have been nice, special. It IS the thought that counts. What he did have to report is his visit to see the Bayeux Tapestry which has moved from France to a London museum for a year, and for which it’s near nigh impossible to get tickets to see. (Did you like my British-ism in that sentence?)  They are heading out for Halloween-ing in a few hours.

It’s been all Halloween in DC. The lead-up is intense. Both Simon and Darcy had multiple costumes and parades and, quite obviously, smiles. For the parents as well.  Margaret’s work has been late-night busy, as you can imagine with all the news coming out of Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba. 

But they had time to have a brunch with Jeff and Melodie, who were playing hosts to David and Paula. The Fairport crew had a successful road trip that included a stop in Reading, Pennsylvania where they picked up a scary kitten. Scary because they say it’s wreaking havoc around the house. But still must be fun.

Over in India, Annie and Sankar have near-final plans for the house they’re going to put up on their property. It’s modular, and looks both functional and, dare I say, cool.  They even have a guest bedroom! 

There’s one happy guy out in Dundee whose Wisconsin teams scored a trifecta last week, in college football, pro football, and of course, the World Series. Congrats to the champs who’ve been waiting a long time. Andrew also reports that Auden had emergency surgery, successful.

Quick update on my health. My back started to heal in Berlin, after weeks of getting worse every day. A welcome turn, to say the least. I’ve been feeling a little like Humpty Dumpty, but now hoping in this case they can put me back together. I call Berlin, the healing city.

With that, have a spooky evening!  Love from up here.

  

Things Fall Apart

I know there are many very important family milestones to mark, but for this writer, the last two weeks have been overridingly about pain. Back pain, in particular. The short story is: I finally got into to see a doctor who ordered an MRI and found that I had fractured my sacrum. Isn’t odd that we learn anatomy by the things that go wrong? Whoever heard of a sacrum bone? Or, for that matter a prostate, that I kept mispronouncing for months last year?  Anyway, the best guess is that the treatments for my prostate weakened my bones, and this one, just above the tailbone, broke.  I told the folks in London that I broke my butt.  Easier that way.

But, that hasn’t necessarily stopped everything. All I can do is wait for it to heal.  Sitting is the best position, so a long drive to DC over the weekend was the perfect medicine. Distractions, with family and grandchildren, are also pretty darn good medicine. And tomorrow, we’ll combine both sitting and distractions to keep our planned travel to Berlin. Pain relievers also help.

Down in DC, we had a chance to reacquaint ourselves with the happiest little girl, considering she had an ear infection and a rattle in her lungs.  Darcy got some medicine at an urgent clinic and was back to normal fast. Simon had Monday and Tuesday off from school, so he went to a “hoops” camp and then an art camp.  Of course, Halloween is in full swing down there. It’s a busy household, as you can imagine or remember. Were we ever that busy?

Probably, and we had a little reminder of that, as we happened to drive by Peter and Janet’s old house in Silver Spring. Fun days, but hectic as well. Happy birthdays to Janet and Johanna who was seen with her father at a couple of sporting events, NY Giants and women’s pro soccer. We also remembered Sean and Erin’s wedding seven (or eight?) years ago. Congratulations!

We talked to Annie and Sankar when we were down there. They have hit a little snag with their property, but seem confident they’ll figure it out. It seems zoning rules are a little opaque there.

David and Paula are heading down to DC next week to check in on Jeff and Melodie.  On their way back, they will pick up a new kitty in Pennsylvania.  Yes, another Maine Coon Cat. Wikipedia says it’s a “large, gentle-natured domesticated cat breed native to North America and the official state cat of Maine.”  Emphasis on gentle-natured.  Or maybe emphasis on large.

Over in London, there is also a very busy household with after-school activities that include rugby and ballet and music and homework and just plain old play. Leonor starts back to work soon.

Andrew and Lur were up in Ripon for homecoming, football and fireworks and Green Lake meditations. Claire joined them for the game. Meanwhile, back in Dundee, Billy and his family arrived for a week’s vacation. (That's Theo below in the soccer uniform) Andrew tells me there’s a Midwest team doing pretty well in the baseball championships.  Did I just jinx them?

We played host to a couple of Foreign Service couples which was a lot of fun. “Thirty-six hours in the Berkshires” that included cider tasting, Theo’s hot dogs (of course) and a guys spa date, for pedicures. You women have been hiding the fun all these years.

In between her hostess duties, Mary has been super at caregiver. Never flagging, always cheerful. I just hope I can step up if and when it’s my turn.

So, next letter, we’ll tell you all about our chocolate cake and coffee tour of Berlin!

Love from up here.  

 

Fall foliage

Chalk up another September; another month that flew by.  How do you get it to slow down?  This week on the radio, I heard Rich Steves interview Paul Theroux on the subject.  He’s 85 years old and thought he had done his last trip.  Then he drove across Canada (for his new book True North) and found that he was ready to do another trip. He says travel slows down time, especially for people his/our age. Otherwise, one day feeds into another, and before you know it, entire months have passed by.

And that’s what September has felt like for me.  With one exception. Health.  A sore back surely slows down time. Why can’t it get better as quickly as the days pass by?

Speaking of travel, Mary is on a plane right now, coming back to Pittsfield after a few days in Florida. She is wrapping up Timmy’s estate which means unloading his house and car and his personal effects. All the work she has put into this process has made us rethink the six storage areas on our property, including a new shed which is getting full pretty fast.  Sorry, Joe, Margaret, Annie.

Speaking of health, Lur’s two siblings are facing major health issues.  Her brother lives close by, but her sister is way down south.  Can’t be easy times.

I’ll tell you what are easy times.  Birthdays!  Happy greetings to Paula and Tina, and to Johanna whose big day is tomorrow!  Party time. Paula and David headed to the true north  for her celebration at Niagara on the Lake. That means they crossed the border and could probably see Lake Ontario easily.  (I couldn’t resist.)  Anyway, what a wonderful way to spend one’s birthday!

I need to do a correction. Last letter, I kind of intimated that Joe went to Scotland for a St. Andrews reunion. (Cue the loud buzzer noise – wrong.) He joined a bachelor party that included a college classmate. While he was gone, Leonor took the children to a play. Anyone else hear of ToToRo? Or am I the last one on the planet to take in this latest children’s character? Story? Looks like they enjoyed it – that’s the important part.

Annie’s home. And they’re back to their project full time. They have a new house(s) design, and are tackling all the myriad questions that come with building – what kind of wood do they want for their floors, and more serious, water and electricity. Looks like it will be wonderful when completed – with plenty of room for guests!

Down in DC, Darcy got a case of pink eye, and then was kind enough to share it with her mother. Through it all, she put on a happy face. Not sure she has any other kind of face. Margaret said she was busy supporting the chaos of the UN General Assembly. Sadly, I never got to work on one of those.

Football season has started, as have the baseball playoffs and the WNBA playoffs. Too bad I can’t upload Darcy’s commentary on the Patriots’ game last Sunday.  She could have just as easily been talking about the Bengals. Spoiler alert – it’s 45 seconds of raspberry sounds.

We’re approaching peak leaf season here. Thankfully, we did not get any damage from the storm, and Mary was even able to take her flight to Daytona in the middle of it. Looks like a lot of flooding in New Jersey and the Carolinas. 

Hope everyone is well, and Love from up here!

 

 

End of summer

September 16 sounds familiar.  What happened? Whose birthday?  Hmmm.  I know. It was my first day of radiation last year.  There’s a date to forget.  This week I go to Boston for my sixth injection of hormone therapy.  Only two more after that.

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.

 

 

Say It Ain't So!

End of August?  That’s too soon. Slow down summer.  Too late; we see trees changing colors already, and the nights are definitely cooler.  One advantage – we have a glorious crop of real big tomatoes. 

End of August also means back to school time, for the next generation. We went down to DC for Simon’s first day but missed Darcy’s first week of daycare.  She did great … until, the daycare germs got to her, and to the rest of us. We think we got our norovirus type stomach bout from her, which Margaret also had. We recovered, sort of, as has Margaret, and Darcy was never even phased. She had her first solid food.  Simon, by the way, has a wiggly tooth. Maybe even two.

Soon, she’ll be eating like Ronan. Keep a washcloth handy.

I am wondering if Thomas, John and Luisa think that everyone has summer vacations like the one they had in Portugal. They spent time at multiple beaches, and then went to carnivals and zip lines, and bumper cars, and tennis and soccer and cousins and food glorious food.  They are back in London, and school starts for them tomorrow. With new haircuts even!

Guess who else was in Portugal and London? Annie and Sankar! Yes, Sankar met up with Annie for their grand European tour that included these two stops.  The fun continues. They must have found something to eat in the British pub!

 Big news for Johanna -she landed a job!  Congrats!  Too long a haul, but glad the job search is finally over for you.

Over in Fairport, David was hunkered down amidst the Fairport music festival, enjoying the out-of-towners desperately searching for parking.

Claire has also started school, with the news that her school is in the top 4% in the country.  Must be because of Claire.  She took her parents out to a concert, but I’ll never remember the name of the group.  Was it Volvo?

Last letter, I mentioned that Daniel had gone to Mexico, and he wrote this report. “México City was absolutely amazing. And it was a very last second trip so didn’t even plan too much outside of the big things- Lucha Libre, Teotihuacan, and a large tour throughout the city. The guides at Teotihuacan were outstanding. Like they injected 10 hours of content and material in my brain within 30 minutes. Had a bunch of questions but too many French people around, very well dressed, couldn’t work up the courage to ask. But nonetheless a highlight of my journeys. Strangely, but probably not so, found it very similar to Chennai! Colorful, friendly, blooming culture and aromatics sizzlin in every street corner! My mouth was definitely writing checks than my stomach couldn’t cash!”

Some letters just write themselves, and this is one of them.

That’s all from her – see you in September, Love.

 

Summer fun, summer sun

I’m starting this in the waiting area of the Berkshire Eye Center. My doctor routinely runs late, by a lot, so we’ll see how far I get. 

First off, I’m here because yesterday I had my second cataract procedure. It’s over, and, in a couple of weeks, I’m confident I’ll see great. David told me he had this done a few years ago. 

I’m not the only one to have surgery. Janet had bone spurs removed which I bet is a tougher procedure than cataracts. Anyway, she says she’s well on the way to recovery. 

Hopefully no one else has a surgery, either past or pending. No fun. 

What is fun is a birthday. Way to go Everett!  And at a camp with archery and riflery. 

What’s also fun is picking fruit. We had a bumper crop of raspberries, then blueberries and then peaches. We even have grapes on our vine, but they look a little dubiously withered already.

Another not fun thing is buying a car. Mary’s Honda had 160,000 miles and ten years, so we bit the bullet and picked out a red Subaru Crosstrek. I think Prince wrote a song about it. Little Red Crosstrek. 

Where in the world is …..?

Leonor and children are living the dream near beaches in Portugal with a never-ending stream of cousins to play with. 

Annie and Sankar met up in Italy and have been sending pictures from the Dolomites and other places. I think they’re in Croatia now, and we saw terrible fires there on the news last night.

Margaret is back at work, and Andrew’s parental leave ends today, I think. That means Darcy’s off to day-care next week and that means, as many will remember, logistical juggling of drop-offs, pick-ups, illnesses and much more probably. 

Joe’s in London, also back at work but will join his crew in Portugal soon. 

Did we see Jeff and Melodie in Rhode Island?  Or Sean and family in Annapolis? Thank goodness for Facebook.

(They just called me in. Only fifteen minutes wait.)

Home now.

Where in the world was ….?

Daniel was in Mexico City, with his girlfriend Sierra.  And, he told his parents he would go back in a flash.  Of course, there’s so much to do – he raved about the pyramids.

Billy was in Los Cabos. Another wonderful spot, blue water, blue sky offset by tan desert hills. Stunning.

I did something this week that I bet no other Dickson had done nor probably will ever do. I spent a night in Saugus, Massachusetts. Long story. But I needed to find a cheap place to sleep after I got kicked out of my Hope Lodge free lodging. Another long story. The important part is Saugus Mass. The Chisholm Inn. It was only $135 a night and then seven days of back pain because of the mattress. Cross it off my bucket list. 

Another highlight was going to see “A Chorus Line” at our local theater. Either we have become real hicks, or they have great talent here. The play was wonderful. Great singing and dancing. We had seen it on our honeymoon on Broadway, and the production here was just as good. We think. 

We’ve had glorious weather up here, but I’m not sure it’s been the same everywhere else. Hope it breaks for you soon. 

Closing out with one more wonderful shot from the Poconos.  Remember that?

Love from up here.

Put July in the history books

Only a few more hours left in July, without a weekly letter yet. I fully intended to put one together before we went to the Poconos, but I think you can imagine the craziness of the last few days before we descend on Mt. Springs.  And, now, early July seems like ancient history, what with Andrew’s birthday, Annie’s birthday, July 4, Mary’s going off to Wisconsin and more.

But first, the Poconos. Remember that? Another special year with lots of memories and pictures imprinted on our brains. I’m sure everyone has their highlights but here goes. Let’s see if my list is like yours.

As before it’s just wonderful to see the next generation play together, wander around, swing and see-saw, dig in the sand, swim, tell stories, run and play tetherball, football, frisbee, soccer, badminton. Did someone say tired? Not them.

One big highlight this year was watching the World Cup games, especially the final. Exciting and tense.

Another achievement was surviving a full day of rain, with lots of little ones.  I’m not even sure how we did it.

And, we all welcomed a new addition to the family in Darcy, and we met for the first time Ronan.

Of course, the meals were great, and so were the naps. For the first time, I didn’t walk around the lake, but a few other people did, I noticed.  I also saw some fishermen and women, and some first-time swimmers out all the way to the dock.   

We might have set a record for trips to the grocery store in a day. 

There were a few people we missed at the Poconos, so hopefully next year.  I know why Claire wasn’t there. She went to Colorado to see her brother and his family.

We had a little adventure on the way home. Actually, a couple. Mary and I took all three boys in the rental van, and had a reminder of what it’s like to travel with little children. (Which means thanks to all who made the trip taking care of bathroom breaks and arguments and requests.)  We stopped at one rest area, and who did we see inside? Joe and Annie and Luisa!  How did they get ahead of us?

Then, we almost ran out of gas on the way home. One more unneeded stress.

But we made it home, and have enjoyed two weeks with everyone here. The boys were in a sports camp, and Leonor arrived the day before Mary’s birthday!  We also survived a few days of downpours here. Then Thomas turned 9. The 24^th was also Donald’s big day.

Annie left yesterday to start her European vacation with Sankar, that includes trips to Italy, Croatia, Portugal and England.  Maybe somewhere else too.

Then, tomorrow we take Joe and children to the airport for their return to London, and, by a fluke of travel planning, Leonor leaves the following day before they all continue their party in Portugal.

Sickness followed us here. Hope you all missed it. We’re slowly sharing coughs and some lost voices. And, in the good timing department, I had cataract surgery yesterday. Went smoothly, but it was a little disruptive for everyone else. I get the second eye done before the next bi-weekly letter,

We also took advantage of our family here to host a get-together in memory of Timmy, and a large contingent of Boyles showed up to send him off with lots of stories.

July did fly by, but that’s what happens when you pack it in. August will be slower and quieter. We’ll miss everyone for sure.

Love from up here.