Moving Mania (05-01-14)

  The last two weeks have been a blur of activity. As you can see from the picture, some of us were more active than others.
  I decided to fly back to Boston to help my sister move, so out came the suitcase again.











My visit this time around was only for 6 days.  I arrived a few days before the official move, and helped with the last minute packing, and the organization of the actual move.  I took absolutely no pictures on this trip, and stole this one from my sister.

The day of the move  the temps were in the 40s, and it rained most of the day.  Not a fun move- Once we got wet, we felt chilled most of the day. Still,  it all got done, and my sister and I went back to the old apartment the following day and did the last minute cleaning etc. 

I flew back to Fresno, CA a couple of days after helping my sister move, just in time to help our friends Kirk and Karen with the final two days of their move into their condo. Unfortunately, my luggage didn’t arrive back in California with me, and 3 days later, I finally received it this morning, after it sat in New York for 2 days.

The weather for the move in Fresno was almost as challenging as the weather in Boston, for different reasons.
And just when I thought the moving was all done, my daughter called to say she is going to look at apartments this weekend. I think by the time she moves we’ll be on the way to Alaska, but she doesn’t have much to move anyway, so she should be fine.






So, the next move is our move into the truck camper.  We are still working on Kirk and Karen’s condo for the next week or so, and then we can focus on fixing up the camper and actually moving into it.

Blog? What Blog? Oops, I forgot about my blog! (04-10-14)

Well, I didn’t really forget about it. We’ve been very busy for the last……..um, month. I guess that’s by far the longest I’ve gone without posting something. Here’s a brief synopsis of what we've been up to:

I flew to Boston for 10 days to visit my family.  Pretty much the only pictures I took were on the plane. While I was there I managed to pick up our taxes from our accountant, so that was a bonus.  My sister is moving in a few weeks and I am still debating whether I will fly back to help with that.

Part of the reason we came to Fresno early was to help Paul’s friend Kirk.  He sold his house and is moving into a condo, so he has numerous projects for Paul to help with.  They've been busy doing some remodeling and sprucing up at the condo before the big move.

Of course, life is never all work and no play.  We've taken plenty of time off to enjoy ourselves.  We went out to a comedy club with our friends one night.

There’s one goof in every crowd it seems like.

 

We've taken the opportunity to share lots of meals….this one was delicious, honest!

The last few days have been even more hectic. The site we are in is large enough to fit both rigs, which is awesome, so we brought the truck camper over and have been cleaning, fixing, and stocking it for the last few days.

We've certainly done our share of stimulating the economy in the past few days.  Kirk has been letting us use one of his cars, which means we can mostly leave the truck parked.  It sure has made things easier for me- I can do all my errands while Paul is helping Kirk at the condo.

The other day we started sleeping in the camper, checking to make sure its comfy enough.  We moved our Tempurpedic topper to the camper, so that helped a lot.

This has been our view from the window.

So now we are on our first test weekend.  There are quite a few things to say about the camper, but I’ll leave that for the next post.

Day trip into Boston (06-05-13)

“A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on”  -JFK

We took advantage of the semi-nice weather, picked up Stephen and headed into Boston.  Our destination was the JFK Presidential Library.  After being impressed by the Carter Library, I was interested to see the Kennedy one.

I was 4 years old when he was assassinated and my only real memories of him are of those last few days.  I remember looking at the TV and instead of seeing the cartoons I expected, I saw his funeral procession.   I remember seeing the caparisoned horse with the backwards boot (used to signify a fallen leader), and thinking that maybe everyone was sad because the rider fell off the horse. This picture is of Ronald Reagan’s funeral.

First on the agenda was the introductory movie, which gave a synopsis of JFK’s life up till his run for the presidency.













 

One of the biggest challenges of the JFK administration was, of course, the Cuban Missile Crisis. Unbeknownst to most people, Kennedy secretly recorded many conversations that took place in the Oval office.

This special exhibit had several stations where you could listen to excerpts of conversations recorded during the crisis. The conversations start with discussions about the possibility that the Russians are building a nuclear missile base on Cuba.  In the excerpt, you hear the President receive confirmation from military advisors that photos have shown a base being built.

What followed were conversations over the course of the 13 day crisis, that detailed the decisions that were made in the White House, and what information the decisions were based on. Listening to the debate over what, if any action, should be taken by the U.S. was fascinating.  Ideas ranging from attacking Cuba/Russia to waiting and doing nothing, were debated and discussed.  




In the end, the decision was made to institute a military blockade (called a quarantine because “blockade” was considered to be an act of war). A very tense period ensued, until an agreement was finally reached between the U.S and Russia for the removal of the missiles.

The JFK library sits on prime real estate overlooking Boston harbor. The museum was good, but not in comparison to the Carter Library. After discussing it, I realized it was mostly because Kennedy was not President for very long, and of course, he died at such a young age, there isn’t as much material to showcase.

So, now our daughter Jessica has arrived, and a whirlwind 4 day visit has begun.

Boston/home (05-28-13)

Having lived most of my life here, there is no such thing as enough time in Boston for me.  There are so many things to do, and so many people to see, I could spend the whole summer here.  I said that to one of my friends, and she perked up, thinking we might decide to stay.  But no.  We did extend our stay another 5 days, so the stress of trying to squeeze in as much socializing as possible in a short time has lessened, but not by much.  But we are determined to spend the summer in Canada, so leave we must.
A few weeks ago, before we got here, Paul and I discussed the fact that since we’ve been on such a history kick lately, we should approach Boston from a tourist standpoint and explore all the historical sites.  Well, that plan has fall pretty much fallen apart, since we haven’t really had any time to go exploring yet.  Maybe we will, before we head out of town.  We’ll see.

So, what have we been doing?


We’ve been hanging out with our son Stephen.

We celebrated my birthday with my family at my brother’s house-and even face-timed with my daughter Jess on my ipad, so she could be with us too.  Of course, since then she has booked a flight, and will be with us in person in a little over a week!

We took the “T” in to Fenway Park with my brother Ray and his wife Dawn, to watch the Red Sox play the Cleveland Indians:

We had great seats to watch the action on the field.

I love the saying “it’s not over till Big Papi swings.”   Although David Ortiz didn’t hit his signature home run, he’s still one of my favorite players!

 

When a man as big as Ortiz steals third, it’s quite an accomplishment.  And although my brother says it’s called “Defensive Indifference”, I still call it stealing!

The game wasn’t the most exciting game ever, with the Red Sox down by three by the bottom of the 9th inning. Typical of Boston fans, though, the stands were still full and very few people had left.  Good thing, too! 

 

By the time there were two outs in the 9th, the Sox had scored another two runs, and Terry Francona, (who used to manage the Red Sox, but now manages Cleveland) was on the mound, changing pitchers. The game was  pretty exciting by that point, and ended in a win for the Red Sox when Jacoby Ellsbury drove in two runs when he hit a line drive with the bases loaded.  Now, that was fun!

It was very touching when the Yankees fans sang Sweet Caroline at the Yankees game after the Boston Marathon bombings, and it made it more emotional for me to hear it at the Red Sox game.

 

My clever sister-in-law Dawn had the foresight to make reservations at nearby Jerry Remy’s Restaurant for after the game, and dinner was delicious!










We spent a day out on the water with some old boating friends.  Their son bought a boat and we went out with them all on the shake down cruise.  It sure did make me miss boating on the ocean with our friends!










  
  Paul got his chance at the helm. 













We couldn’t have asked for better weather for lounging at anchor and zipping around the islands.  They keep their boat in Danvers Mass. and we took it out to Misery Island, off the coast of Beverly, MA.

So, that’s the short version of what we’ve been up to for the last week or so, with more craziness to come. 

“We Interrupt This Blog…” (04-19-13)

  The last few days have been difficult for a lot of people and devastating for others.  On Monday April 15, two bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  Most people know that I grew up in a suburb of Boston, where Patriot’s Day is an extremely important holiday, and the marathon is considered to be one of the first signs of spring.  It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized that the whole country didn’t celebrate Patriot’s Day as a holiday!

Like many people, I’ve been following the news, watching the search for the culprits, listening to reports about the victims, and waiting for new details on an hourly basis.  I guess our lack of privacy in this modern world actually helped lead to a resolution of the situation. The subjects were videotaped, showed up on multiple surveillance cameras, and police asked for any and all witness’s digital pictures that might show something of value.  Within a day or so, we knew what these two guys-brothers- looked like.

Throughout this ordeal, my Facebook page has been littered with “Boston Strong” pictures and messages of solidarity.  The New York baseball fans sang the Fenway theme song “Sweet Caroline” at the Yankees game. 

At the Boston Bruins game, when Rene Rancourt started singing his usual rendition of our National Anthem, the sound of his voice was drowned out by the singing from the Boston fans. He shut off his microphone and turned it over to the crowd.  An amazing moment.










Last night, after a police chase and firefight, one of the two suspects was killed, and the second on was on the run.  He ran to the town of Watertown, a town I know very well.  I have had friends from there, my brother used to live there, and I have shopped many times at the Arsenal Mall, which was on the edge of the 20 block police perimeter.

empty streets of Boston

It is amazing to me that Massachusetts police and FBI were so committed to catching this guy that they essentially shut down the city of Boston and many of its suburbs, to cut off his escape routes. No school in session, no busses running, no mass transit, no trains, and no taxis were on duty.  Businesses were asked to stay closed and citizens were asked to stay in their homes and lock the doors.  Absolutely unprecedented. My son lives in one of the towns that was in “lock down” mode.

So today, even if I had wanted to go out and explore, I felt glued to the TV as the more than 9000 police officers held a perimeter while conducting a house by house search.  In fact, I installed a police scanner app on my ipad so I could listen to what was happening, as it was happening, even before the media reported on it.  I am exhausted, and I wasn’t even there! I had the scanner on one Apple product, and the map on the other, so I could track the movements of the police. 

Early this evening, after completing the 20 block search and finding no one, the police were getting ready to close that particular operation when they received a call from a local resident who noticed blood on the tarp covering the boat in his back yard. Soon after confirming that he was indeed hiding in the boat, “suspect #2” was apprehended.  And now, like everyone else, I get to relax and breathe a sigh of relief. 

Here Come the Brides (Boston, 10-18-12)

Once we arrived in Livingston TX, (technically our “home” town) we took care of some business.  We are having our wills, powers of attorney, etc. re-written, now that we are TX residents.  We had our initial appointment before our trip to Boston, which gave the attorney a few days to type them up while we were gone.  We met with the lady who offered to keep an eye on the cat, and got all our laundry done, Once we did all that, we were ready to go!!

I’m very happy we decided to fly to Boston for the weddings.  Of course, I would have been much happier if the weddings had been on different days, or even different weekends.  Both were important enough that we would have tried to fly back for each of them. We attended the actual ceremony of my cousin Greg’s wedding.  This picture is of him watching his bride walk down the aisle.

This picture is of him walking down the aisle 31 years ago when he was the ring bearer at my first wedding.  His mother was terrified because I insisted that a ring bearer should carry the real rings!

Greg and Jen exchange rings. 

Greg and Jen with his parents, my uncle Bob and aunt Tish, two of my favorite people!

After sticking around that reception long enough to eat dinner, we hightailed it out to the second reception.  I would have loved to have watched Christina walk down the aisle, since I’ve been friends with her since she was 11 years old.  Her parents are two of our best friends, even though we don’t see them too often!  We are trying to convince them to move to Arizona.  We may succeed yet!  Their daughter Dina gave birth to her first child, in Arizona, on her sister’s wedding day.  (their mom-Roseann, didn’t get much sleep the night before the wedding! Constant text updates on the labor progression!!). They were hoping that Dina would be able to Skype to watch the wedding ceremony, but she was a little busy!

 

Christina and her brother Mark.  We also got to spend time with a bunch of other good friends,all of whom we know from our boating days in MA. At one time we all had a boat on the same dock at the marina, and spent years partying together! 

Sunday we got together with my family at my brother’s house, where we ate, played cards and watched the Patriots win a football game.

Our last day, Monday, we spent the day with Stephen, ending up at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants for dinner.  We had an awesome trip, but the days passed too quickly.

Back in Livingston, we are taking care of “stuff”.  We met with the attorney and finalized the documents we need, Paul updated his driver’s license to the correct “class” for towing a trailer and we voted. Tomorrow we’ll weigh the rig and the truck again because the weighing equipment here is state-of-the-art, and it’s always a good idea to know what your vehicles weigh.  From there we head south of Houston for more partying!