Riding the wave

Where did June go?  In fact, I'm not even sure where May or April went, let alone June.  July promises to be action packed as well. 

I think the theme for this letter is riding.  Or at least the photos.

There's one of Thomas and John riding a horse, one of Simon riding on the bike, and one of Jeff and Melodie riding on a boat. 

Does anyone know where Wachapregue is?  Or better, does anyone even know how to pronounce it?  I guess we'll have to ask Jeff and Melodie because this is where the photo below is taken.  Anywhere near Chincoteague?  It doesn't look like they were camping on the beach.  Remember?

Covid continues to affect us. Or, to stick with the theme, we're still riding the Covid wave.  Margaret just wrote to say that someone in Simon's class just tested positive so they're having to shut down the day care.  Simon by the way got his first shot and was a big boy, no tears and even got a Happy Meal out of it.  (I got my fourth shot but no Happy Meal.  But also no bad reaction.)

And, we just heard from our British friends, the Locherys whose daughter is getting married this weekend.  Both she and her fiancé have Covid; he's through it now, but Katherine is still positive.  We are supposed to go to the wedding on Saturday.

We were also supposed to ride a pontoon boat on our lake for Father's Day with our Peace Corps friends, but when we woke up it was 49 degrees and windy.  Fortunately, the boat rental people didn't charge us as we had reserved the boat well in advance. (You wouldn't believe how many fathers like boats.)

The night before, it was just as cold but also rainy, and guess where we were?  Tanglewood, to hear Bonnie Raitt.  She was great, but as you can see it tested our endurance.  Not quite as much as Shackleton, but almost.

Annie rode on a plane to come out here the same weekend.  She had a meet-up with Hamilton friends in Monterrey (MA not CA) and she stayed here a couple of nights.  She had an adventurous flight out here, but figured out a new route that included a train ride and didn't miss her buddies.

And somewhere on Green Lake in Wisconsin, I suspect Andrew is steering a pontoon boat for his family, everyone except Daniel.  Claire came up to help open the camp near Green Lake where she has previously worked, and Bill and Jen and their family also rented a house on the lake for the week. 

Joe bought airplane tickets for this coming week, to come back for a few weeks with Thomas and John; unfortunately, Leonor can't make it, as she'll stay in Brazil with Luisa and return to work, her maternity days used up.

Here in the Berkshires, we've been bike riding and kayak riding, as the weather has warmed up, and we continue tutoring, hiking, and swimming. Mowing the lawn and weeding, but we've had lettuce, radishes and strawberries so far.  Mary won't like me saying this but she found out she is top ten in the world in the 200 breast stroke. How bout them apples?

Down in NJ we see Janet back to doing her audio description and Peter completed auditing a class on the Civil War.  They are heading out to Chicago in August for Johanna's graduation. 

And, in the birthday department, today is Leonor's big day.  Parabéns, chica. 

The next letter will probably have a dateline Mt. Springs on it.  Can't wait.

Love from up here.

Celebrate Good Times

It's just me and the kitty.  Mary's off at a retreat/escape/party with her homies for a few days, in a lakeside cabin in Hinsdale, not too far from here. Last year, the women offered to help out a high school friend by doing the flower beds at the cabin he rents out.  Scheming as they worked, they came up with the idea of a barter proposition.  They would put in the hours (actually quite a few) to make the place presentable in exchange for a week in the cabin.  So, here we are.  I should add, never did it occur to them to include their husbands.  Too much mansplaining, I guess. 

Meanwhile, the husbands will be going for a hike this morning, our regular weekly hike started during the pandemic.  I'll be able to mansplain my week last week.

I actually returned to work last week.  Yup.  Forty hours.  Or more.  Exhausting, but fun.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation offers tours (like AAA or Road Scholar) and they had one on the Berkshire Cottages. They needed a local study leader and voila!  That's right, I was the guy on the bus with the microphone.  "And on your left you will see King Cone, home of the world's largest soft-serve baby cone."  You can imagine where we went – Rockwell, Clark, Ventfort Hall, Naumkeag, MassMoca, Chesterwood, all the spots.  And of course Arrowhead.  A nice group of people from all over the country.  When we get to the Poconos, ask me about the one house I'd never heard of – Bunny Williams' house in Salisbury.

Speaking of the Poconos, I got a message from Sooz saying they would not be coming.  Janie has long Covid; she's getting better, but thought it best not to push herself.  Too bad and hope she gets fully better soon.
Looks like Davd and Paula had a pre-Poconos reunion with Jeff and Melodie with a visit to Seneca Lake.  Melodie posted on Facebook that she had a birthday, but didn't say which day.  Happy birthday.  Also in the celebrating category is David and Paula's anniversary.  And bearded Oliver had a birthday too. 

More celebrations in the Midwest.  Not the heat records, but Claire's Making a Difference Award at her school for her work with special needs children.  She joins the family queue of heroes working in that area.  Congrats, Claire.   And congrats to Elliot who graduated from kindergarten.  

Annie's changing coasts this weekend.  She's coming out here for what looks like the same thing Mary is doing, with her girlfriends, but she'll hang out here with her parents a few days.  She will escape before the Gabon crew arrives, as we'll be having a bit of a reunion this weekend with a few couples coming from as far away as San Francisco.  The attraction?  Bonnie Raitt at Tanglewood.

The babies in the family are growing so fast – Kiernan in Maryland and Luisa in Brazil.  Holding their heads up, sitting up, smiling, grabbing.  Can't wait to see them.  Big John has started potty training.  Look out.
We finally made it down to DC after our delayed by Covid visit.  Simon had been sick all week, and was just coming out of it.  I challenged Simon to a little one on one basketball; the first time I've played since I was 24, and I think the first time I ever won since Andrew was six years old.  You'll have to ask Margaret at the Poconos about her new job.

One final thought on the Poconos.  If the stock market goes down much farther, we'll be meeting up at Motel 6 next year.

I bought a flag yesterday, on Flag Day.  We've hung one for years on our garage, but it was too tattered last year to hang.  

And, did someone mention Father's Day?  No?   How about Juneteenth?  Looooong weekend.  

Enjoy!  And love from up here.

Summer fun

Happy Memorial Day!  The official start of summer.  And it looks as if the Dickson diaspora did summer-y things to celebrate, on the east coast, on the west, and in between; in the northern hemisphere and the southern.   

We saw Annie and Sankar sailing and bike riding; we also saw Bill and Jen and their family heading out for a camping trip; Tina and Matthew and their boys did their 15 miles on the Erie Canal; Thomas and Joao went to school (because it's not a holiday in Brazil) which gave their parents the day off with Luisa; Margaret and Andrew and Simon went to a Baysox baseball game; Janet and Johanna visited a little boy in Maryland.  Nearby, the lake was packed with boats and swimmers and I'm pretty sure I could smell all the barbecues while I was ……

Mowing the lawn.  But, hey nothing wrong with that.  Except that my ride-on mower wouldn't start.  More steps.  But, Memorial Day around here, after the parade honoring those who gave their lives for the country, means finishing all the garden chores, specifically transplanting and sowing the new seeds.  This year, hopefully, you'll get to read about tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, beans, zucchini and lettuce.  Mary's flowers are already giving us color.

And tonight, I'll be at Fenway Park to watch "YOUR CINCINNATI REDS" take on the home team.  Mary is going to stay home, but she assures me she'll be watching the game looking out for two old men catching foul balls in their beer cups.  I'm going there with Charlie, and we may be the only ones in the park who remember the 1975 World Series, but I can assure you this year, there won't be a repeat of those two teams in the Series.  At this point could be a Mets-Yankees affair.  Anyone a fan of those two teams?  

Back to Brazil, where there was an extravaganza to celebrate John's second birthday; no longer is he Baby John.  We did a Zoom call with Margaret and Annie and everyone, and we're actually getting better at singing Happy Birthday and Parabens over the split-second delayed internet medium.  John looked exhausted until he saw his new toy kitchen.  He got a second (or third or fourth) wind and started a whole bunch of recipes and cleaning right away.

Also, in Brazil, or rather Portugal, Leonor's mother went home to Lisbon this week, meaning they are now without instant grandmotherly help for the first time in three months.  Obrigado, Patricia.

Andrew and Lur hit the road before Memorial Day and traveled up to Michigan to see the final concert of the year at Claire's school.  They too said they just finished planting everything in their community garden at the hospital.  

Speaking of hospitals, Mary got through her bout with Covid without needing a hospital stay.  She was bedridden for a few days, mostly with fatigue.  She kept saying how grateful she was for the vaccine.  Me too, as I somehow managed to avoid the illness, testing negative three times that week.  We have postponed our trip to DC until this weekend.  

Covid also affected Omie and Larry, our friends from Mexico who came east from Seattle and got sick along the way.  They quarantined before getting here, though, and had no symptoms at all.  So, we were able to enjoy their stay, museum-ing and eating and drinking and not even nearly exhausting all topics on our way through the Berkshires.   

 
Tomorrow June, the perfect occasion for Mary to lament the passing of summer.  

Love from up here.  

 

Post-pandemic?

The minister at church today used the term post-pandemic.  That phrase didn't sit that well here, since Mary tested positive this morning, and has symptoms.  I am negative, but who knows for how long.  I hasten to add that the church service was via Zoom.  She's on the meds that are recommended, and so far, it is like a common cold/mild flu.  We saw Dr. Fauci recently say that everyone's going to get it.  So, now it's our turn, I guess.

This puts a wrench in our plans for the next couple of weeks.  Most disappointing, we were supposed to take the grandparent trek down to DC, ostensibly so Margaret and Andrew could attend a wedding.  That was the excuse but who needs an excuse?  I was supposed to start giving tours at Arrowhead tomorrow, but that's canceled.  Our tutoring classes canceled.  No swimming for you know who.  And, of course, this comes the week that I asked for numbers of attendees at the Poconos.  We're still going.  (Thank goodness for the home tests.)  Maybe by then it will be post-pandemic.

John and Marilyn flew up last week for their granddaughter Natalie's graduation from Paul Smith College in the Adirondacks, after which they came to Pittsfield and stayed a few nights with us.  We had a mini-Boyle reunion with members of their family who came from Boston and Albany for a big dinner that Mary put on.  So nice to see everyone. On the other side of the country, Timmy had a heart valve replacement which went all right.

Out in Illinois, Daniel has a new job, at a high-end salon, with regular hours.  Good news. And we saw on Facebook that Myles was playing the violin in a band concert. You can see the violin case in the photo of him and Auden below. One more bit of old news for the folks out there was a recent renovation – a new sewage connection to the town pipes.  Not something to proudly show off, but they averted what could have been a real disaster.  What we take for granted.

Also on Facebook, are signs of spring and taking advantage of the great outdoors.  That means hiking excursions for Matthew and Tina and family, gardening for Jeff and Melodie, and strolls in strollers for Kiernan.  We are doing our own bit to try to get the garden ready, weeding and raking and mulching, and I actually have mowed the lawn twice already.  That means regular back exercises.

 
Annie flew to DC for work, but also to check in on Simon and his parents.  Andrew set the threshold high for Mothers Day presents as Margaret and Annie spent the night at a hotel watching movies, and I think there was some junk food involved. And here's a leftover photo from Hawaii on something Annie called the green sand beach.

Joe spent the week at a law enforcement conference in Rio.  Wonder why they picked Rio?  The photo below is of Leonor and Baby John at the airport to greet him on his return.  And this week he is off to Porto Alegre.  And in the grand tradition of weekly letters, Thomas and John got haircuts!  Seated in cars, watching videos.  Pop never had that kind of service at his $2 barbershop in Putnam.

Some birthday news.  Happy birthday Sean (yesterday) and by the next letter we will have celebrated Matthew and Baby John's birthdays.  Matthew's birthday means Peter and Janet's anniversary and tomorrow is Margaret and Andrew's anniversary.  Lots of celebrating this month.

And lots to look forward to, with the whole summer ahead.  Can't let sickness get in our way.

Love from up here.  

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.