2018 Life Logs, Day 256—Getting Back to ‘Normal’
2018 Life Logs, Day 256—Getting Back to ‘Normal’
Date: Thursday, September 13, 2018
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 72, Low 61 F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Not sure there is anything ‘normal’ about life these days, but today I worked toward that goal. I attended the first general meeting of Newcomers this morning and signed up for the various activities I will engage in this year. I saw Karen and Peter Baranowski and found out that Karen’s Aunt Shirley, who is my neighbor and the women that rents the cottage to me, had some health issues while I was away and spent a few days in the hospital. She and her sister Doris are now at Doris’ home up near Boston and will be there for the next month. I’ll miss them and hope health issues are resolved and that they will be able to return sometime in October.
After the Newcomers meeting, I stopped by Heather and Jed’s to do my laundry. Actually, I just put the dirty laundry in the washer and headed home for lunch and to listen to Heather talking on the radio about hurricanes and climate change. Then after lunch I returned to put my clothes in the dryer. I waited for them to finish and headed back home once again. This time I had a nice phone conversation with Justin. His birthday is tomorrow and I was trying to pin down what he wants most as a gift. It ended up to be a Home Depot gift certificate, so that will be sent electronically tonight. Then I headed to the soccer field where Sam and Jonah had soccer practice. Heather had an evening engagement, so I went to hang out with Ollie which gave Jed the time to help out with soccer. Ollie wanted to run his morphibian
at the skate park next to the soccer fields and then we went down to the fields and kicked a soccer ball around. Ollie lost his first tooth today
on the playground. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find it, but hopefully the tooth fairy will understand and still work her magic.
It was a good day, but I spent a fair part of it fuming over the President’s denial of the deaths in Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria. Hopefully the President’s response to damages caused by Hurricane Florence will be better than his response to Maria last fall. I have much more to say about this, but not tonight. I’m too angry to write about President Trump’s recent statements , , . so hurtful to the people of Puerto Rico who lost family members. His words are shameful.
It was overcast when I started out and then started misting heavily as I crossed the George Washington Bridge into New York City. I made a stop in New Haven to do some shopping and have lunch at IKEA as it is very convenient to the highway. When I got back on the road, the heavens opened up and I had torrential rain all the way to Cape Cod. But as I crossed the bridge, the rain ceased. That has been the pattern all summer. It rains just north of us, but here in Falmouth we have not rain for a very long time. I had a wonderful seven-day road trip, but as I drove in the drive-way, I was so excited to be home again. 
Their slip is the very last one at the end of the dock which puts them right on the Delaware River. It is a fantastic location.
We got my things aboard and then walked back to the parking lot to their new-to-them Roadtrek motorhome and Claire’s parents met us there for Happy Hour. The 2015 motorhome is quite fancy and perfect for a traveling couple. Right now it serves as Claire’s home during the week. This spring Claire took a position at Princeton University in New Jersey and Philadelphia was the closest place where they could live aboard Merganser. She commuted for a bit, but the rush hour traffic made it a difficult commute. When they found this motorhome on the internet, it seemed the perfect solution. Claire drives it to Princeton, uses it as her traveling home for the week, and then returns to Philadelphia for the weekend. It looks brand new and is bright while. Staying with the bird theme (their sailboat is named after a duck), they named it Ptarmigan.
After Happy Hour with Claire’s parents, we all walked to Society Hill to have dinner at the Malbec Argentine Steakhouse Restaurant. Society Hill still has its original cobblestone streets. It is absolutely charming, as well as historical. The dinner was to celebrate Kevin’s birthday which is on Friday. He and Justin were born on the same date, just three years apart. Our toast was to Kevin . . . and to Mark. We had a wonderful dinner and then went walked to an old-timey soda fountain where the staff wears bow-ties as they dish out the ice cream. Wonderful evening with wonderful memories of Mark.
and she went on a nine hour explore with me and never even hinted at being tired. As I drove into Roanoke this morning, an idea crept into my head. What if I took Aunt Ethel on a day long road trip to Monroe Country in West Virginia where she was born and spent the first quarter century of her life? When I arrived at her house, I ran the idea past her and she jumped at the chance. I got on the phone and made arrangements to meet one of her other nieces for lunch. That niece is married to a man that had Aunt Ethel as his first grade teacher. It was perfect. We picked up my cousin Sarah Jane and went to the café where her husband Richard runs his logging operation out back . . . only in West Virginia.
Richard was truly surprised to see Aunt Ethel and the people in the little café couldn’t believe that 82 year-old Richard’s first grade teacher was still living. We had lunch, everyone sang happy birthday, and then we drove to see a nephew’s house that has a most amazing view. I knew he was not home as I had called him earlier in the day and found that he and his wife are on a road trip out west. But he loved the idea of getting a photo of Aunt Ethel in front of his house.
We then took Sarah Jane home, marveled at the jars of canned green beans and tomatoes that she and Richard have put up this summer,
and then drove up the mountain to Wikel where Aunt Ethel first lived with my Uncle Guy when they got married. So far the day had been great, but it was time to start our trek home. We were driving home a longer route so we could go through the part of Monroe County where Aunt Ethel grew up. Her teen years were spent living in the town of Gap Mills and we wanted to see the house where she lived. It was at this point that our perfect day became not so perfect. We saw the sign for Gap Mills but we saw no town. There was no phone service, so I had no Google Maps to help guide me, but when I saw the sign for the next town along the way, I knew I’d gone too far. How did we miss Gap Mills? The house Aunt Ethel lived in was right on the road, but sure didn’t see it or the school or the old country store. I was determined to find it, so we turned around. Was the old joke really true? Did we blink and miss the town? We drove back and coming from that direction, I did see the old school. I stopped and found a young local who was quite knowledgeable. He explained that in the 1990’s, the road was rerouted, just slightly, but many old homes were destroyed in the process. Bummer. We traveled on, but now taking the longer route home and not getting to see Aunt Ethel’s childhood home was a disappointment. We had to drive up and over the foggy mountains and finally got back to Roanoke. But instead of going home, Aunt Ethel insisted we go out to dinner at a restaurant that serves catfish that she highly recommended. I have never eaten catfish, so this was fun for me. And it was delicious. We then went to the grocery store to get things for breakfast and to buy an ice cream cake for our final birthday celebration. And after blowing out the candles
and eating the cake, we spent two more hours reminiscing. While we were eating cake, I got a text from Justin with a video of Coco and Ziggy singing Happy Birthday to Aunt Ethel. She was thrilled and really looks forward to meeting them in the near future. Aunt Ethel was still going strong. Totally amazing.
He walked down to the dock to get the boat ready and I was to follow in a few minutes. When I got to the door to go out, I was very surprised to see that it was pouring rain, and I mean pouring. I waited a few minutes more and when the rain let up a bit, I got a towel to put over my head and braved the weather. Rex was returning thinking our little trip was rained out, but then the rain stopped. So, we were back on track. Rex is my oldest sister’s son and when he was young they lived on the opposite side of the Coal River from where Rex now lives. I spent many of my summer days as a young child and as a teenager riding on that river with my sister and her husband, first in their classic Cris-Craft motor boat and later in their 24-foot cabin cruiser. It was great fun to go out with Rex today and explore once again.
The Coal River is small and runs into the larger Kanawha River which eventually runs into the Ohio River and then the Mississippi. When Rex was in grade school and I was in high school, we went from the Coal River all the way to Cincinnati, Ohio. Great memories. The Coal River is the color of the clay mud that dominates in that area.
It is certainly not blue water, but I really enjoyed the ride down toward the Kanawha and then back to the what is called the Lower Falls. You can kayak the falls, but you certainly can’t take a motor boat any further. When I was young, the river was so polluted from the chemical plants in the area that there was really no bird life or fish in the river.
Both have returned and we got to watch a Great Blue Heron catch and swallow a fish, saw lots of ducks, a turtle, and a hawk. What a treat.
The only negative was that Diana’s mother Cassie, who lives across the street, called Diana about an hour before the reception began and asked her to come over. She wasn’t sure what happened, but she reported to Diana that her leg gave way and she just went down. Not really a fall, but just went down to the floor. Diana called 911 because her mother seemed confused. When the EMTs arrived they could only tell Diana that her mother’s blood pressure was extremely high and that they would take her to the hospital for further tests. It ended up that Diana took her to the hospital and didn’t get to come home until after the reception had ended. I know she was disappointed, but she is very close to her mother and certainly knew she wanted to be with her. For the reception, we all did what we could to carry on in her absence and everything worked out fine. Tonight Diana is home and her mother is staying in the hospital. It was determined that she had a mini-stroke and she needs to be under observation as the blood pressure is still high. She has no apparent issues from the stroke other than a little difficulty retrieving words. Diana is doing fine, but naturally she is extremely concerned. Let’s all hope that tomorrow brings good news.
Rex and Diana had the reception catered, so in Diana’s absence, I watched the food table to make sure more food was brought out when needed so that Rex could spend time with his guests.
I had met most of his friends in prior years, but it was great to see them again. One friend they call Disco Dave was the DJ for the event.
Rex’s brother Barry and his wife Beth
were here and Beth took care of all the set up. She had attended to every minute detail to make it a special event. White paper was put on the outside tables and then pink roses were strewn on the tables with the help of Rex and Diana’s granddaughter Emma.
Rex’s daughter Rachel was also pitching in to host in Dianna’s absence.
The rain held off so everyone could socialize and have appetizers outside. There were lots of children who played together so beautifully, but they were hungry bears and we served the food earlier than planned to keep them happy. After we ate, it was time for a toast
and cutting the wedding cake. Beth had the cake made and it was beautiful.
When it came time for the bride and groom to feed each other a piece of cake, Billy was so funny. He evidently expected Ashley to gently put a piece of cake in his mouth, but the piece was bigger than he expected. It took him by surprise and he ended up with it all over his mouth—all in fun.
Later in the evening, the younger crowd took their children home and the older crowd stayed around to watch the West Virginia University football game. Diana got home in time to see some of her friends and watch some of the game and then we ended up staying up into the wee hours of the morning talking. Wonderful day with family.
