Things Fall Apart

If there was a motto for the last few weeks, it would be "things fall apart."  Specifically, washing machine, lawn mower, blender, airplane schedules, and maybe a few other things, but fortunately not our spirits. And that has led as well to my retiring from retirement all over again.

For I have hired someone to mow our lawn. A big step, as Margaret said, life-changing. I actually like sitting on the machine and spacing out, but the new guy has come a couple of times, and the yard looks nice, maybe even nicer than before. My ride-on that I had bought used 5-6 years ago had broken down for the fourth time this summer. When the repair guy came, he asked me how old I was, one of the criteria he was suggesting for the choice of repair or buy another one. After recovering from that indignity, he had a point. And, as we were going to be gone for a few weeks coming up, I explored a lawn service. I didn't have to go far. There was a sign down the road that said "You grow it; I mow it." And now we have a lawn service. Too much information? Sorry.

I have another story about the washing machine breaking down, but I can't convince Mary to get a laundry service. So, waiting for the machine and the accompanying dryer has meant she has made several trips to the laundromat, and she is reenacting 19^th century laundry techniques of a clothesline. Fortunately, we bought the house next door, so there are trees close enough to hang a line, the same trees Mary's mother used.

Speaking of the house next door, we had two barbecues, one for the Boyle family and the other for friends, to come and see the house and take away any souvenirs they want. Both events were fun, and a number of items have been stripped and hauled away – spindles from porch railings, sconces, hinges, pencil sharpener, bottle opener, wall paper, shingles. We are just waiting now on the asbestos removal, that appears to be more extensive a project than originally thought.

As I write, Annie is on a plane somewhere between Washington and Chennai. Her original flight was canceled due to a bad storm in DC, but she's finally on her way. While in DC, she was able to get together with Jeff and Melodie (see photo.) Joe and Leonor also had the misfortune of a delayed flight, and they too were on their way to the airport when they found out, but they got to extend their vacation a couple of days. Hard to do with three young children.

Margaret and Andrew were here for almost two weeks, and we can report the good news that they didn't get the Covid that they found in the house when they arrived. Simon kept everyone busy, fun busy with marshmallows and water balloons and excursions to every playground in the area.

This week was back to school week, which means for Thomas it was first grade!  Wow. Exciting times and going too fast. Hoping that everyone else's back to school transitions went well. 

As soon as I stop writing, I'm going to finish packing for our road trip, that will take us to Fairport, Midland Michigan (where we'll see Andrew and Lur), on to Travers City to visit a Peace Corps friend, back to DC to check in there, up to NYC for a baseball game with Peter and Johanna and then home. I'm already tired, but it will be fun to see everyone.

Love from up here.    

Ice cream

Halfway through August, and there are hints of fall in the air.  It's a little chillier in the evenings and a few trees are looking orange. Too soon? Yes.

In fact, the first part of this month has been a bit of a blur. We were supposed to have a visit from John and Marilyn and then a Boyle family barbecue to say goodbye to the house next door, but Covid interrupted our plans. Mary was very sick, a little scary even. I had mild, cold-type symptoms, and Annie gave us the care we needed for a couple of days, until she got sick too, despite our sincere attempts at quarantining and masking. She was pretty sick with fatigue and cold symptoms.

None of this Covid household deterred Andrew and Margaret from making their way north. But the time they arrived, I was in the clear, but we continued our segregating efforts. So far, so good. Simon has a wee hint of a cough, but we hope that's just from all the exertion he puts forth every day, every hour, every minute.

Where are Joe and Leonor, you might ask? As far away from the Covid household as possible. Portugal, to be precise. They spent some time in Lisbon before heading out to a beach in the south. Everything looks fantastic. They're supposed to be coming home next week.

Annie had recovered enough to join Margaret in NYC for a play and an overnight. The play was about Lincoln, Mrs. Lincoln to be exact. "Oh Mary." Pop might have been happy if it actually had anything to do with Lincoln. Annie and Margaret said it was very funny and worth seeing. Apparently, the playwright did no research at all on the Lincolns, and made everything up.

There was also a birthday, an August birthday, for Everett. Surely, it was a great day.

And, there was another birthday.  Herman Melville's.  August 1. It too was a great day, and I gave two talks, one at the library and one at the top of Mt. Greylock, and I only saw one person sleeping. Mary and I also participated in the annual Moby Dick marathon reading.

What do you do in the summer? Eat ice cream, so we have some ice cream pictures to share. I snuck one in of Kiernan eating fluff, but it looks enough like ice cream, and I'm pretty sure there was ice cream Everett on his birthday.

We've been swimming in the pool and in the lake, going to splash parks and playgrounds and the library, playing baseball and tennis, and doing projects around the house.

Speaking of the house, the permitting process for the demolition next door is moving along, as it has cleared three different city commissions. There's an asbestos removal component and then a pest control abatement, and then we're good to go. They sure don't make it easy.

The garden is producing a lot of cucumbers, and tomatoes are right around the corner. We can't eat the beans fast enough, and I'm not even sure I like beans that much. We gave away a lot of peaches, and I figured we split the harvest 50-50 with the squirrels. Andrew sent along a picture of his garden.   

And that's a wrap.  Enjoy the remaining days of summer.  Love from up here.

Poconos Redux

When the calendar reads August, I still think of my teaching days since it meant that the summer was over.  Sometimes, though, I think of soccer practices starting. Now, though, I think mostly of the vegetable garden and what we're going to do with all the cucumbers.

But end of July means our bash in the Poconos is still fresh in mind. Every year I say best ever, and this year is no different.  From the weather standpoint, it was wonderful, with just one brief storm on our last evening that only slightly affected the last dinner together. We all had different slices, but here are some highlights

-- grandchildren tops my list.  They had so much fun, especially the first night, when they ran and ran and ran around the pirate ship playground with Donald chasing the younger boys, and even Luisa. Normally, we hang out around the supper cabin, but everyone followed the youngest set down to the pirate ship. I have included a few pictures; looking at them, I cringe when I imagine this crew ten years from now.  No, I don't cringe; I welcome it.

How do you measure success? Here's one measure – exhausted children sleeping in the cars all the way home. Here's another – I took a couple of books and magazines and might have read a couple of paragraphs.

-- swimming to and jumping from the dock, endlessly, exhaustingly

-- wildlife, including deer, bear, heron and snake sightings. I think Jeffrey caught a few fish too; I know Simon caught a worm. Anyone else?

-- boat rides. Mary and Margaret stretched their diplomatic skills to make sure Thomas, John and Simon all got their share of boat rides.

-- endless chatter among generations, between generations. We picked up a lot of newsy items, most of which will go in the other letter – not for Pops Weekly Letter. But, it's important to catch up; so much happens in a year.

-- the multi-birthday party for Mary and Donald, Thomas and Everett. I managed to make my way through way too many desserts that night.

-- Rell's perseverance through computer shutdowns and plane and rental car delays to get there late at night.

-- visiting each other's cabins, exercising, napping, tv downtime, babysitting, board-gaming, wandering, tether ball and see saws and Oliver's yoyo contraption, sand castles.

We missed people too.  David and Paula, Janie and her crew had to take rain checks for health reasons. Next year, fingers crossed.

Mountain Springs really is an ideal place for gathering with people in their own cabins, in easy reach of the lake and sandy beach and playground, and so picturesque, with the view from cabin porches of the sun spotting through the trees with the lake in the distance.

With that in mind, put it on your calendars for next year – July 17, 18, 19. I reserved Sunday night for two cabins as well; let me know if there's more interest in one more night and I can reserve more.

Non-Poconos news: Billy and Jen made it to Colorado and then boarded a flight for Cabo San Lucas for a rest; Daniel took his parents to a concert, and Claire is heading home this weekend. Paula and David entertained with a few of Paula's college classmates they hadn't seen in years.  Joe and Leonor and little friends are in Portugal for a two-week vacation where they celebrated Thomas' birthday on his day. Annie is back in Pittsfield, but, not for long, as she heads to Boston next week. And Colleen and Laura got married.

I should add it's also Herman Melville's birthday. August 1, 1819.  But you already knew that. 

Love from up here. 

Castles in the sand

Once upon a time …. we went to the beach in Delaware.  The end.

That's how my stories to grandchildren all start out. They are not impressed.  Not sure why.

Anyway, we spent the last week at a beach house in South Bethany, Delaware. The "we" is Joe's family, Margaret's family and Annie, as well as Mary and me. Impressions? Fun, first of all. The house was great, and would have been greater if there had been an outdoor place to play. It was a block away from the beach, which we ventured towards every day, sometime around 9 am. The weather cooperated, and despite calls for rain several days, we managed to avoid the worst of the deluges. That allowed us, mostly little boys, to play in the sand, build castles, dig, jump off the erosion "mountain", and with the help of a parent or grandparent withstand the crashing waves. And they did crash. Pretty rough at times. But, we did give it our best. Margaret and Annie were supposed to go surfing, but called it off due to the weather and the consequent rough waves.  Mary and I also managed a beach walk each day, using Pop's tried and true method of walking into the wind first, and returning with the wind at your back.

The town and its boardwalk provided other entertainment, with shops and ice cream and French fries and racing and shouting. Leonor and Andrew took three rambunctious boys to "Funland," and Margaret took a couple of the same set to a water park to blow off steam.

And, we celebrated Annie's birthday, a thirty-something affair. Margaret made her an Oreo ice cream cake, vegan and everything. Unfortunately, I didn't hear the dictum about not eating the Oreos, so I had to go out and find more for her to complete her masterpiece. The photo included here shows Luisa ready to pounce on anyone who comes between her and that piece of cake.  Annie is still eating it, back here. That's right, we packed up Saturday and Annie came back to Pittsfield with us, after spending her first week or so in DC, alternating between Joe and Margaret's houses. Now if we could just get the sand out of our hair, our car, our clothing, our shoes. When will someone invent a beach without sand?

We weren't the only ones to travel. Trying to piece together clues (and photos) from Tinybeans, it looks like Sean and Kiernan joined Erin for her annual medical conference, somewhere that you had to take a plane to, and somewhere near a beach. It was Kiernan's first plane ride, but he might have liked the trains between the terminals the best. Sticking with the NJ clan, we saw that Peter, Janet and Johanna went to a US Women's Soccer game.

Claire is also traveling and will stop in Dundee and deposit her kitty for a few days. Andrew and Lur report that they won a couple of awards from their community garden, including a ten-year award. They have their first tomatoes. Lucky! And both Claire and Daniel were there for Andrew's birthday.  Happy day!  Before Andrew and Lur leave for the Poconos, they will have a farewell dinner with Bill and Jen who fold up their tents a couple of days after the Poconos.

How was your 4^th? Hot? Yes.  But fun, too, I bet.  Jeffrey and Melodie caught a Nationals baseball game. Fireworks impressed the children at Joe's house, but over at Margaret's not so much. Simon had noise-cancelling earphones because there were a lot of booms right on their street. We went to the parade in Pittsfield, that featured a youth marching band all the way from Ireland. We withstood the heat to go to friends' barbecue, but I went home early for my ritual 4^th of July nap!  Once a year.  Maybe.

We also saw Tina and at least Donald headed to Niagara for a French and Indian war reenactment, which looked very realistic!  Last of the Mohicans. Who by the way re from the Berkshires.

Our next letter will include a recap of all things Poconos. The excitement is building.

With that, we'll sign off with wishes and kisses. Love from up here.

 

   

 

   

Happy 4th!

July?  Slow down, summer. But, speed up tomatoes and cucumbers. I guess I can't have everything.  We're actually having our best crop of raspberries and cherries, although those are sour, not sweet. And the lettuce is doing spectacularly, which is why I want the tomatoes and cucumbers to catch up.

Our zoo of deer, groundhogs, rabbits and some other large critter (giant scat in the lawn) outside the garden has so far not discovered the good food inside. Can't say the same for the folks out in Illinois, who are resigned to the fact that the deer have to eat as well. Andrew and Lur this past week were up at Green Lake for their annual getaway. Their stay coincided with Ripon reunions, Andrew's 45^th.  They also spent a day with Claire who came over for the annual pontoon boat ride. She is moving to a new house in Sheboygan, closer to a lake.

Other big news of the week is Annie's home!  At least on this side of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. She arrived a week ago and went straight to DC.  She's been hanging out with the folks down there as well as her friends. We will get to see her this coming weekend when we all descend on a beachhouse in Bethany, Delaware for a week. A little pre-Poconos get-together, advance planning. Annie's planning on staying here through August. Yeah!

Speaking of the Poconos, we heard from Sooz that her mother (Janie) had a bad fall and has three fractures in her spine. Janie was in the hospital for quite a while and has now been transferred to a rehab facility where she will stay for about a month. They will not be able to join us in PA. I'll be sending out cabin assignments shortly. Hold your breaths!

Yesterday was Leonor's birthday, and she celebrated with a girls' night out on birthday eve, and then a pool party and cake with Andrew and Margaret and Simon, and I believe Jeff and Melodie were there as well. Too much fun. Thomas, John and Simon have been going to day camps, and coming home exhausted and rather dirty, we hear. That's a good sign. Luisa is continuing her day care, and unfortunately, John had another bout with strep.

Another birthday celebration, this time Marilyn's.  She and John came up to New England for a little over a week, and we went down to Colleen and Laura's house in Hartford for her party. They have a houseful of dogs including three new puppies, all well behaved. The next day, they came up to Pittsfield for a memorial service for a cousin, Connell Boyle.  Both events mean a lot of food, good food, and it's hard to control myself facing buffet lines. Connell was a vet so he had full military honors, along with a surprise gun salute.

We talked to David a few times. He had seen the new Shaker stamps, but didn't know that they were released right here in Pittsfield!  We're famous. I went to Shaker Village for the unveiling of the stamp designs, and picked up some first day covers to add to my collection.

On the cultural calendar, we started our Tanglewood summer, with a concert by Jon Baptiste. I have to admit to low expectations since I had only heard snippets from his time on the Colbert Show. But he was an incredible musician, and put on a great show. I've been taking a drawing class, although I don't see a lot of progress. And, Mary finished her birding classes, and we are back to French conversation group at Edith Wharton's home. C'est bon et on s'amuse.

I got through a letter without talking about the heat, or the cold, or the house next door, or a certain debate.

So, better wrap it up before heading off on a rant.

Love from up here.

 

Calling all fathers

Dateline: Chapel Hill North Carolina

On the road again. A quick trip to come to our Peace Corps friend's daughter's wedding. And it's an excuse to stop in DC on the way down and back. I will admit to having a secret desire to return to the dark days of the pandemic when no one was on the roads. Especially between Washington and Richmond VA. And around Baltimore. And through Delaware. Maybe even the Garden State Parkway.

I misread Jeffrey and Melodie's Facebook post that they were also on their way to a wedding in NC. I missed the Y as they were headed to NYC.

Either way it's going to be hot. Heat waves this weekend and all next week up and down the east coast. Even in Pittsfield, it'll reach 90 each day. We talked with John and Marilyn, and they had just gotten off the golf course where it was closing in on 100 degrees. That's commitment.

I thought we were on the move but then I read Annie's latest letter which had travels to temples, to islands and then to a place Mary and I went to back in November. Our big excitement was the rest stop on the NJ Turnpike.

Actually, we got to walk Simon to school. That counts as adventure. Margaret had been in training all week on the new world of disinformation. And their refrigerator broke down over the weekend, but it worked to our advantage as Andrew made a wonderful Italian beef stew served on rolls. Better than The Bear. (TV show recommendation)

We'll stop at Joe and Leonor's on the way home. They've been busy with all the end of school year festivities. When did they start doing graduations for pre-K? Field days, concerts. Did someone say heat wave?

David was in Pittsfield last week. He had a weekend planned for reunions at Darrow and came by for chats and dinner the night before. He cut short the reunion since the room on campus where he was supposed to stay looked more spartan than the Shakers ever endured.

Speaking of reunions, I usually flip through the Princeton Alumni Weekly rapidly. This time I stopped on Peter's class (1973) and saw he had taken on responsibilities as the Class Zoom Director. That's a challenge for people our age as zoom meetings usually spend the first ten or so meetings with people complaining that they can't hear or they don't know how to raise their hand or they forget to mute and talk on their phone and so on and so on. Good luck!

We were invited out to dinner this week but when we told our hosts that the menu would have to be low residue colonoscopy prep, they picked a different date. Mary had her five year colonoscopy date and passed with flying colors (pun intended.).

Out in Illinois, Bill and Jen are full steam ahead on their move to Colorado. They have July dates for the move and plans to rent while their new house is being built. Ambitious.

We saw Timmy a few times as he has moved back to Pittsfield. We took him on a tour of the house next door which sadly doesn't look like we'll be able to salvage. We had applied to This Old House but knew it was a long shot. Next week we go to the excavation company. Sad

A milestone. Forty years ago Mary, Joseph and I went to DC to start Foreign Service training. At the swearing in, Joe through his glass milk bottle on the floor near the Director, Charlie Wick. If I remember right, I think Peter and Janet were there too.

Finally, June 9 passed with memories. Pop would have been 101.

Love from down here.

Back and forth

My aching back. Every time I load a wheelbarrow full of mulch, I wonder how many more years I can do this. Mary, in ordering three cubic yards of the brown stuff, even offered to hire a young man, who our neighbor recommended, to spread it around the garden. "Why?" I rejoined, "You'd be taking away my fun." So, just to set the record straight, an aching back is not fun.

Spring mulch also heralded a passing of sorts. My wheelbarrow died. Actually, the handle that I had cobbled together with wood and screws (I'm thinking here of the chair Andrew and I built in Wilton) finally came un-done as I dumped and wiggled the load into a garden bed. This had been a free wheelbarrow, one we found in the shed on our property in 2007, a shed we promptly tore down, a shed that had a brick path to it, that we uncovered years later, as we were preparing yet another garden bed. The wheelbarrow is no more, but the brick path is an ornament of sorts to Mary's flower garden.

Too much information? Yes, but it has been a quiet week in the family. There is news, though, especially birthdays! Joao/John turned four! And, it looked to be one of those birth-weeks of celebration. Party and cupcakes and balloons and presents and then start all over again. Matthew also had a birthday, and Sean did too, which should have been in the last letter. Matthew's birthday calls to mind Peter and Janet's anniversary, as their wedding and Matthew's birth happened in the same week. Congratulations all!

I'm not the only one with an aching back, as Andrew and Lur put their garden in at the community garden, and David finished up his spring plantings. Maybe even Simon has an aching back, as he was seen mowing the grass in front of their house. Never too soon.

Speaking of mowing the lawn, my ride-on mower also broke. No, to be accurate, I broke my ride-on mower, for the second time this spring. It wouldn't start, so I lifted the hood to see if it was something simple, and then promptly broke the plastic hood when I "set" it back down. Okay, it wasn't shutting properly so perhaps I might have jammed it down, just a little. But I wasn't angry. Really. Because the grass was tall, it meant I had the pleasure of a 4 ½ hour lawn mowing job with a push mower. The repair guy said I was flooding the engine.

Too much information, again? Yes. Here's a quick tour of the fam.  Annie and Sankar are on a four-day hike in northwest India, which means not far from the Himalayas. The photos from their lodging are just stunning.    

We also see photos of Jeff and Melodie enjoying the spring with baseball and crab feasts, separately, of course. Photos of a hike through Rock Creek Park with Joe and Leonor and friends. Photos of concerts, cub scouts and fishing outings with Donald and Everett.

In the last letter, I spoke too soon about no one getting sick after our last trip to DC. Margaret promptly came down with Covid and had bad cold-like symptoms. Fortunately, neither Andrew nor Simon got sick.

Back to me. We had a wonderful overnight visit to the Big Apple, to catch an off-Broadway play that our neighbor designed the costumes for. The Life and Slimes of Mark Summers. Very entertaining and creative. Who knows Mark Summers out there? We now know that Mark Summers was the host of a Nickelodeon show where the child contestants were "slimed."  Somehow we missed that at the time, but not the rest of the audience.

We took in a couple museums, including a first-time stop at the Guggenheim, which, pun intended, floored me. Loved it and recommend it highly. If you look closely at the picture, you might be able to see Mary.

I could go on, perhaps about our back and forth with the project next door, but that's enough for one letter. And we still have not decided whether to tear it down.

Love from up here.