One week to go!

I meant to write this letter yesterday, so I could wish Eliot a happy birthday, not a happy belated birthday.  Hope you had a good one Eliot.

Instead, I went out to work in the garden and promptly hurt my back.  Should have stayed inside.  Still, it was fun while it lasted, weeding, trying to start the rototiller and failing, hauling bags of mulch, raking up the ashes from the brush burn last week, filling the wheelbarrow with mulch from the compost pile.  Hmm.  I probably should have stretched before starting out on this project list.   And the tree guy came today, so my assistance was limited.

We had just gotten back from a couple nights on the north shore, one in Salem and the other in Gloucester.  I gave a book talk, for the first time in person, for a group of retired foreign service types, and then we continued on to the Atlantic Ocean to spend a night with Cliff and Sheila whose family has a house on the beach.  We ate way too much, and had way too much fun. Do they go together?  Salem, by the way, is a delightful city, and we walked through two museums, the House of the Seven Gables and the Peabody-Essex.  Our lone connection to the overly touristy witch stuff was to visit a memorial recently put up to the 20 people (19 women and one man, if I remember right) executed for witchcraft in the late 1600s.

Are these letters only about travel?  Hopefully not, but travel is the break in the routine that seems worth mentioning.  Pop regaled us with his haircuts, trips to the dump, and shopping at Spags.  Anyway, we had spent the previous weekend also near the beach, in Rhode Island, with Marj and Lew.  We tried to go for a walk on East Beach, but after 20 minutes of a fierce wind and cold temps, we headed for the safety behind the dunes. 

We also took the time to check in on Mary Fort, and Maura, Steve and Elsie.  Elsie was in a vacation camp musical performance with Disney theme songs, including Simon's favorite one about Bruno.  Mary Fort was still recovering from back surgery, and she said that Kathleen is completing her doctorate.

We decided to head home by retracing the drive we took many times, from Rhode Island to Pomfret.  We stopped to take photos of a grey house, now partially blocked by grown-up trees. The grey paint I was prepared for, but not the peeling, flaking red paint on the barns.  Sorry Pop.  Should have been part of the sale contract.  

We veered off the road by the school and took photos, specifically the dorms where Joe and Annie resided.  No big changes there, at least that's what it seemed like. 

Annie and Sankar are back from Hawaii, and had a wonderful trip.  How could you not in that paradise, or at least that's what I hear.   Once home, Annie started her new job, still with Door Dash, and working on broader organization issues in the company.

Joe also traveled this week, to Rio and Sao Paulo, trying to squeeze in visits before Leonor's parents head home when it'll be harder for him to leave the mother alone with three children. 

Down in DC, Simon had a week off from school, not because of vacation, but because another child got Covid.  Ain't over yet.

How was your Easter?  We see the Illinois trio got a lot of loot (pictured here), and we also saw photos of Simon clutching on for dear life the eggs he picked up.  We had a quiet Easter dinner at the Red Lion Inn, but our conversation turned to the dinners we enjoyed at the Harvest in Pomfret. 

Looking ahead, we'll play hosts to John and Marilyn who will escape Florida heat for NY cold, and Natalie's graduation from Paul Smith College. 

Other news?  Let's not talk baseball.  It will be a long season for a certain team in the Midwest that is angling to get first round draft picks for the next 20 years.

Instead, let's talk Mother's Day.  To all the mothers out there, new and veterans, with a nod to those who've gone before.  Thank you!

Love from up here.

Springtime matters

Tax day!  My favorite day of the year.  We always get a refund which means we are withholding too much.  But I still like getting the refund.  I know we should just save it, but somehow it never works out that way.  By the time the refund comes, even, I have already figured out the multiple ways to spend it which usually add up to more than the refund.  File this in either the "don't do as I do" folder, or the "who cares" folder.

I know, though, you do care about the warm weather we are enjoying.  Spring is on its way.  We have our spring job list which starts with raking the gravel off the driveway, starting tomato plants indoors, and then moves on to mulching and the annual brush burn.  I can't figure out if it's worse for the environment to run a gas-powered chipper or to burn the brush.  

Speaking of which, one way we have already spent our tax refund is adding solar panels to our garage roof this summer.  No more electric bills. Not only helps climate change, but also helps defeat Russia (I think.)
We're famous.  Kind of.  This week we went to St. Anselm's College in Manchester NH to see an exhibit of art by Mary's friend, the Cistercian monk.  We were walking around the room, and my eyes found writing in one of his paper-strip collages.  When I looked closer, I saw Mary's handwriting – a return address from a card she had sent the artist.  See if you can spot it in the attached photo.  I think that counts as at least 2 seconds towards our 15 minutes of fame.

We had spent the night with Foreign Service friends who retired to Exeter NH.  What a wonderful town. And wonderful friends.

Enough about us.  Johanna was spotted out in the Midwest, checking in with Andrew and Lur on one of her grad school visits to Northwestern.  When we called out there, we heard a lot of noise from Myles, Auden and Elliott who were spending the night with their grandparents, while their parents went to a concert.

Other travel.  Annie and Sankar are right now in Hawaii, as Annie finally wore down Sankar who previously had no interest in going to that tropical paradise.  Joe spent a week in Colombia, for work, while Leonor did her own version of work with three children, and help from her parents.  When Joe got back, Leonor's parents headed off to the coastal state of Bahia with Thomas for a few nights.  Pictures of that visit showed Thomas swimming, underwater!

More travel.  The John Boyles were playing host to their children and grandchildren who headed south for spring break.  A full house and most likely a fulsome amount of fun.  And, we see the path from Pennington to Towson getting worn down from grandparent visits to young Kiernan.  

Down in DC, Simon continues to branch out, from soccer to gardening and music classes.  

On the birthday front, Peter's is next week, and then around the corner is Elliot's a week after that.  Enjoy your days.

Life is good here.  We are the Luckiest Generation. Mary and I have coined this new phrase to describe our generation (should we apply for trademark?).  We could not claim to be the Greatest considering all our parents went through, and we admit that their greatness paved the way for our good fortune.  Which leaves open the question, how is our luck paving the way for the next generation?  Sigh.

Love from up here.  

Hope Springs

Spring is here.  We had a fake-out couple of days, and the green stems of some flowers peeked through.  Then, wham, snow.  And, even in more temperate climes, where we traveled this week, it was cold and un-March-like.  But, as Pop would say, summer follows, but never soon enough, quoting Shakespeare almost each year about April being the cruelest month.

The big news for this letter was Simon's first soccer practice.  You may not think it's big news, but remember the photos of Tiger Woods' father and the future Masters' champ at age two?  They'll be showing photos of Simon stacking the orange cones when he scores the winning World Cup goal.  

Actually, the big news up here is the pool is closed.  Mary has been scrambling up to North Adams in the wee hours to find an open lane.  She's also been teaching English to a young Afghan woman who is making great progress and, in turn, is teaching us all about surviving and adapting.  

News from Chicago! "Lur and I used our Christmas gift of a celebration of Simon and Garfunkel downtown on Sunday afternoon. Quite a show, with great musicians and stories. And of course, bringing great memories.
On the way to the parking garage, we witnessed the Chicago version of Ukrainian protests. Thousands in Daley plaza. I was worried for a while if we were going to be able to leave the parking garage. Quite a sight. And on the way home, on the highway, many cars with Ukrainian flags.

I had lunch with a couple of college fraternity buddies. The two main topics were Medicare and hearing aids. The new normal?"

News on the next generation!  Judging from the photo here, it looks like Donald attended his first peace rally.  Peter and Janet jumped into the grandparenting game as they headed south to Baltimore to hold -and maybe never give back - Kiernan.  Then Aunt Johanna also made her way to Baltimore, before turning south for work, but finding time to check in on Simon, just days before his birthday.  He had a birthday week, with parties at school, with friends, with grandparents and maybe even with Barack and Michelle, for all we know.

 
And, Simon wasn't the only March baby in the family.  David's birthday fell yet again on the first day of spring, and I missed saying happy birthday to Lur in the last letter.  Compliments of the day and month to the March contingent.  Down in Brazil, Luisa passed a milestone of sorts, her first month, coinciding with her original March due date.  

News from out west.  Annie got a promotion!  Hooray.  She and Sankar went camping this past weekend, with the neighbors from their community housing, and it, too, was colder than it should have been.

  
More from Brazil, Joe has gone back to work, even sitting in on one of my lifelong learning classes to explain the sanctions imposed on Russia, to great acclaim by class participants.  Leonor's mother and step-father are still there, helping out.  Sounds like Baby John, who now goes by the name of Big John, is having some adjustments to his younger sister.

 
We spoke to John and Marilyn by phone and exchanged movie and tv recommendations.  We can't quite tear ourselves away from "All Things Bright and Beautiful."  It's such a hopeful show, which we all need.  

With that, love from up here.  

Time change

There's a lot of regular news to catch up on, since the last two letters were about stork arrivals.  And we start by hoping those arrivals are treating their parents well.  And will continue to do so for the next 20 years.  Or more.  Parenting never ends.

At least that's what Annie and Sankar found out, as Mary and I descended into their abode in Oakland over the course of two long weekends.  We packed it in, helped out by their suggestions for hiking, for Sunday brunch (at a Thai temple), and restaurants and craft beer and winery (Melody, you've been there).  They live in a co-housing complex of apartments, which works quite well, as we met the friendly owner and neighbors.  The second weekend, we arrived while they were away, for a skiing adventure at Lake Tahoe.  Annie said she had graduated to the blue trails, and Sankar sticks to the black diamond ones.  Yikes.  I never even got off the bunny trails.

Wedding update - Annie and Sankar filled us in on the latest on their wedding planning.  They are off to India in April for about a month where Annie will meet Sankar's family.

In between these two long weekends, Mary and I headed south, to Mexico.  Truth be told, we were a little reluctant, due to the pandemic and other priorities for our travel escapades.  And more truth, we are glad we went.  We spent a week in San Miguel de Allende, where our friend Valerie had rented a place for a few weeks and invited us to join her.  The occasion was her 85^th birthday, and all her other invitees had backed out.  More truth, we too had thought of backing out.  We're glad we didn't, and not just because she would have been alone.  We had fun.  A lot of it. 

When we lived in Mexico, we had frequently gone to this town, home to many expats, and arts and crafts and a beautiful plaza with battling mariachis at night.  Every corner reminded us of our previous stays; we had good food, and walked a lot, and it was t-shirt weather!  Before departing, we spent a couple of nights in Mexico City, where we saw some Mexican colleagues from the Embassy and had breakfast with our former Ambassador.  And the best part - no incidents, no robberies, no illnesses.  We even figured out how to get our Covid test before getting on the plane to come home.

Wait a minute – there was an incident.  It was the last flight from Newark to Albany where the turbulence had us both thinking that we were not going to make it.  Scary and unsettling.

We thought the daffodils would be up when we got back.  Not really, and there have been two snowstorms and two plows in the week we've been back.

Wonderful photos of the next generation included here.  Miles was, according to the objective grandfather, the star of his team – nothing but net.  Billy was the coach.

Does anyone remember where they were a month ago?  How could you not?  Super Bowl Sunday.  And, we're all happy (mostly Mary) that baseball season will be getting underway, after the strike was settled.  The Mets look pretty fierce this year, with Max Sherzer joining their rotation.

And, Sunday was another important milestone.  The clocks changed, which means spring is just around the corner.

So, it's back to our routines.  Happy to be home, happy to have gone away.  

Love from up here.  

And then there were eleven

Welcome Kiernan Benson Dickson

You were so comfortable inside you weren't sure about joining us. A week after the due date, Erin and Sean headed to the hospital where Erin was induced, encouraging Kieran to come see what it's all about. Five hours later, a little after noon on March 4, he emerged. He weighed in at 7 pounds 2 ounces. A healthy boy with a healthy but, I'm pretty sure, exhausted mother.

And then there were 11. In the next generation surpassing the total for the previous Dickson generation. I wouldn't even venture a bet on the total for the Byrne great grandchildren generation.

More fun at the Poconos. Lots of young boys running around. 

Congratulations Erin and Sean. And the world stops again.

Well hello

Well, hello, Luisa Maury Fontoura Dickson. She brought happiness with her into our world Sunday morning. Mother and daughter are healthy!  She's so little.  Why does this surprise me every time?

 

Leonor had some late pregnancy complications, so the doctors advanced the timetable and opted for a planned c-section Sunday morning. Leonor's mother and step-father were able to change their March flights and arrived last week to be able to help everyone out on the coming weeks.

 

Joe said that knowing the timing of the birth was a little like anticipating a blizzard. All was calm the day before, shopping completed, crib and changing table assembled and onesies and nightgowns and blankets neatly folded. The family even had the wherewithal to go to a park for a stroll.  And then the world stops. For Luisa.

 

The newborn (and the rest of us) is awaiting news from Maryland and New Jersey on her second cousin. 

 

We were inconveniently away and feel a little sheepish/neglectful that we didn't change our plans and hop on a plane for points south.  Joe called us with the news of the changed dates as  we were having brunch at a Thai temple in Oakland with Annie and Sankar.  That's a story for a different time, but it was very good, as was the rest of the time with them and now here in Mexico. But we'll save all that for the next letter, and leave this one for Luisa.

 

Welcome chica and can't wait to see you in person, this year, next year and for many years to come.

 

 

Superb Owl

Halfway through winter, or at least that's what mid-February says to me.  Last month was one of the coldest ever but at least this month we've seen temps above freezing, every now and then.  That doesn't help the driveway much since the snow melts and the water freezes overnight, so it's a bit slippery out there.  Not enough salt or sand for the whole driveway.  Makes for an adventurous, stressful trash day.

We headed down to Washington to check in on Simon, and Margaret and Andrew.  Super fun.  We did a little babysitting while the parents went out to an intellectual movie (Jackass) and enjoyed some nice dinners together.  This time when we ordered DoorDash, we had the food sent to the right address, not Joe's old home.  Simon was a little under the weather, but still a lot of fun.

Department of Coincidences or Paranormal Activity,  While in DC, Mary and I went shopping, and Mary told me to grab something to read.  So, I picked up an old edition of Sun Magazine, and we headed to Montgomery Mall.  While waiting for Mary, I grabbed a coffee and started reading a section in that magazine where readers can send in short pieces.  There was one from a prison in Texas, and I thought I recognized the name of the author.  Sure enough, it was Aunt Janie's grandson.  When I sent her a photo of the article, she wrote back right away, and said it was the young man's birthday.  That day.  Hmmm.

Out in Illinois, Lur and her family had a short graveside ceremony for her mother this past week, short because it was so cold.  Claire and Daniel came home for the farewell, and Billy and Jen were also in attendance.  Daniel, I am told, did not wear his delivery outfit.

Illness seemed to dominate our clan down in Brazil, with Covid sweeping through the household.  What an ordeal for them. Leonor's brother had come for an extended visit and was a big help as Leonor got sick, following Joao and then Thomas.  Pretty scary stuff.  But as Lenor said, they should be through with illness by the time the baby arrives.  Positive attitude.

Speaking of babies, Janet told me that the due date for the happy couple in Maryland is February 21.  We're thinking of you guys.

Department of Bragging.  Each year, Mary's swim team does an hour swim where they see how many laps they can accumulate in a continuous one hour swim.  Mary came in first in New England for her age group.  And she did it without performance enhancing substances.  Who needs the Olympics?  

Did someone say Super Bowl?  Or was it Superb Owl?  I've been able to weather many lean years as a Cincinnati fan, with many abundant years as a Patriot (and Tom Brady) fan;, I hasten to admit, though, that when the two teams played each other, my gut was pulling for the tiger stripes.  To no avail, as I don't think they beat New England once in that stretch.  So, it was super-fun to see the Ben-GALS in the post-season and eke out a few wins.  Even if they lost the big one, they sure gave me a lot of enjoyable moments. And, we had our weekly hiking group over to watch with us, though I must say, they were not nearly as upset at the outcome as they ought to have been. 

  
Super Bowl came on the heels of a birthday celebration here and an international zoom call. Charlie and Annie and their son were here as well, for dinner and a hike through the frozen woods.  Mary outdid herself with a grand cheesecake that she should have sent to the Russian army as it feeds at least 100,000 people.  By the time the weekend was over, Mary had collapsed into the Berenstein Bears "Too Much Birthday" chair.

In a few days time, we'll be waking up in Annie and Sankar's apartment out in Oakland, with the temperature a balmy 60 degrees, we hope.  I can't say we're ready, but we are looking forward to the trip.  Home by March 7, after a week in Mexico.

Love from up here.  And speaking of love, happy belated Valentines Day!