Beacon, New York

Next stop Beacon, NY.  Kit was in a sale event with a number of other excellent crafters.  It was one very long day and I signed on to keep an eye on Fiona while Mom went to work.  The show/sale was great.  I loved the tables and boards made by the woodworker whose workshop was the site for the show.  She really respects the material she is working with.  Quite a bit of it was made of black walnut.   Finally I couldn't resist what she calls a baguette board, a cutting board long enough to fit a proper baguette.  I told her about the black walnut trees I had had on the farm and she understood immediately.  "You miss your trees," she said.  Right on.

It was good to see Kit and Nate and Fiona and hang out with them.  We fitted in some stocking stuffer shopping and some good food at a special restaurant that is situated next to a waterfall.  A partially frozen waterfall after a snowfall is a lovely and constantly changing sight.

Chicago and Thanksgiving

After New York City, it was on to Chicago where Team Daugherty were hosting Thanksgiving and Hanukkah.  It began with the 67th Latke - Hamantaschen Debate at the University of Chicago.  The moderator has been handling this debate for so long that nobody can remember when he wasn't in charge.  The rules are that the debaters must have a doctorate and one of the three must be non-Jewish.  They all, debaters and moderator, appeared to the strains of Pomp and Circumstance and wearing full academic regalia.  Of course, it was the wrong academic robes for these particular people, but, hey, who'd notice that at the University of Chicago.  One debater discussed the issue in Star Wars terms and concluded that the hamantaschen was suspect because it was the same shape as part of Darth Vader's mask.  My favorite was the Professor of Medieval History who presented a tale of the battle of these forces in the style of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings with more in-jokes than anyone could count.

Thanksgiving was wonderful, vegetarian and omnivore alike.  Family, food, wine (imported from an earlier expedition to Canada, of all places) with lots of time to talk and enjoy each other.

I stayed for some extra days to have a "sleepover" with Luke and Annie, when both Elly and Steve had to be out of town on business.  I also came in handy, when first Annie and then Luke came down with colds and needed to be out of school for a few days.  It was fun as we shared Harry Potter readings, new games and breakfast at the Med.  I also got to see Annie's horseback riding lesson and Luke's skating lesson.  It's good to catch up with them and get back into the Gran persona.

Onward, or actually backward, to Michigan and my Christmas present from Judy.  A dinner at our favorite restaurant, a traditional English holiday dinner with more courses than I could keep track of, including roast goose.  I cooked goose once for Christmas about a gazillion years ago.  That was nothing special.  This on the other hand was delicious.  Now I see why it was the traditional main course in Dickens' day.

A New Diva

My first stop was New York City.  My thought when I headed back from the last road trip was that I would stay in Amagansett and be able to go into the City for theatre and concerts.  Well, not so much.  That trip is longer than I thought.  In fact, that's my one real disappointment with living on the East End.  New York City is too far away for frequent trips and I miss being able to get in for a bunch of different things.

This time, however, I was on my way to the Midwest so I could talk myself into stopping overnight in the City.  Found a very pleasant hotel and enjoyed a leisurely dinner.  The next day it was Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera.  You see, there's this eight year old little lady who was making her first scheduled appearance on the stage of the Met (she'd already been on once subbing for another kid who couldn't make a performance in Midsummer Night's Dream).  She is a member of the children's chorus and the opera was Frau Ohne Schatten.  I was completely unfamiliar with the opera and was really astounded not only by the music, but by the amazing staging that was like painting with light and color.  Truly amazing.  I know the Met is all about music, but the stagecraft here was wonderful.  I wanted to buy tickets for everything else they were doing because of that experience.

The most fun and interesting though was sitting with the young diva during the third act and hearing her tell me about being in the chorus, learning the music, switching from language to language with each opera, as well as what she had been doing in school.  Sofia is a delightful person and I admire her so much; for her talent, of course, but also for her hard work and most of all for being her own strong self.  I hope this is the beginning of many dreams come true for her.  I will always delight in being the first one to bring her flowers after a Met performance.

Starting Again

Now that the Amagansett house is taking shape (new deck, wood floors and butcher block counters sanded, garage door opener that actually works, replace worn siding and one window [it has been about 30 years after all), I was beginning to make plans for more travel and adventures.  I just hadn't expected it to start with a mini disaster here and there.

First I crashed my iPhone.  When you don't know an app from an OS, that's easy to do.  That, of course, happened just before I was set to leave for the Midwest for Thanksgiving. I wasn't keen on driving without a phone available for calls and for information.  I know, I know.  Once upon a time we stopped and used pay phones.  The problem with that is that pay phones hardly exist anymore.  At least ones in working order.  Besides I'm an iPhone and Google convert and no longer like being separated from my devices.

So, in an attempt to be efficient, I made an appointment with the Genius Bar that was not too far out of my way as I left Long Island.  Watching my time carefully, I drove up about 15 minutes before the appointment and was met in the parking lot by an Apple employee explaining that all their systems were down.  Apple store systems not operating?  What is happening to the universe?  Not to worry, he said.  All the appointments had been transferred to the Roosevelt Mall store.  Back in the car for a 20 minute drive to a store that looked like the last shopping day before Christmas.  I've seen crowded stores but this one was seriously crowded and mostly by aggravated Long Islanders who didn't like having to change the location for their appointment (one lady, unfortunately ahead of me, had to describe what she termed an hour drive -- somewhat difficult to comprehend when her original appointment, like mine, could not have been more than 20 minutes away at slow speed).

The customers were not doing anything good for the New York or Long Island image.  The Apple folks, on the other hand, were acting like real New Yorkers.  They were coping.  They listened patiently (how they did that part I will never know) and kept the lists and found the next available Genius.  The punch line?  My iPhone was functioning and had my contacts back within half an hour.

Onward to my first stop -- but more on that later.

Thanks for the Memories

When someone dies, you find yourself going over and over memories you didn't realize you had.  At least I do.  Of course, that's after you get over being so stunned that it seems your mind just isn't working any more.  That was me a few mornings ago, when I got a text telling me that a long time family friend had been shot and killed.  It wasn't just the loss of my friend, although "just" is not a word that can really fit into that sentence.  It was the intrusion of violence into my life.  I've lost loved ones to accidents and to sudden health disasters, but violence, a violent death caused by someone's malice, had never reached me before.  I love my murder mysteries, read them all the time, but I never expected one to find me or one of my friends.  There is a very real comprehension problem here.

The part I can comprehend is my friend's life and the memories I have of him.  Ross was my son David's trainer when he competed in horse shows.  One of my favorite memories goes back to the early days of showing.  It's horse show day and David and I are still new to the game.  We've made sure he has all the right equipment and David's looking spiffy in riding gear and trying to look confident.  I've loaded the car and am just doing the driving.  We arrive at the show, somewhere out on Long Island, and start to get ready when we realize we've got a problem.  We (okay I) forgot to put the saddle in the car.  Pretty basic, right?  I have no idea how to solve this problem.  You can't just run to the corner drugstore or even the nearest shopping mall and pick up a saddle.  So, in fear and trembling, we go to Ross to explain how much trouble we're in.

"Ross", I say, "we have a big problem."  Ross looks at me, expecting the worst, and I tell him we forgot the saddle. "Oh," he says, " I thought you meant a real problem."  Then, without moving from where he was standing, he calls out to someone else at the show and asks to borrow a saddle.  The next thing I know someone walks up and hands him a saddle.  Ross looks down at it to see what we've got.  He hands it to David and says: "Carry it carefully.  It's the best saddle you'll ever ride in."  It was Hermes.

That was my friend, Ross.  Always with impeccable good taste.  Always there for his kids, for his friends.  Don't rest in peace, Ross.  Ride in peace.  Ride well, my friend.

Like Old Times

Just when I thought all my immediate neighbors had left for the season.  As I finished my coffee this morning, I heard something, something that turned out to be voices.  Looking our my window, I saw a strangely familiar sight at my next door neighbor's place.  A number of miscellaneous vehicles, including a huge camper trailer.  A small tent with open sides.  A few people, soon joined by a few more.  It was when I realized that everyone I could see was on a cell phone that I had it.  Of course, a photo shoot.  Possibly a film or a tv show.  All I know is that if I see Kevin Bacon, I'm keeping an eye out for serial killers.  After I say hi to Kevin, of course.

Treasure Hunt

It's all in how you look at it.  That's a piece of possibly good advice that I have never liked hearing.  Recently, though, my daughter, Eleanor, found a way of expressing it that got to me.  If you can't change it, change the way you look at it.

That fit in very well with an issue that had arisen for me.  Most of my worldly goods, other than the things I had in my car as I traveled, are now in a storage room.  Getting all of my things into storage with a closing deadline coming up when I sold the farm wasn't easy.  I attempted to organize it by numbering the boxes and keeping a list of the box numbers and contents on my iPhone.  Let's just say that the first few boxes list almost every individual item, but at the end the descriptions got more and more general.  Sometimes I listed the closet or room, sometimes a general category like pots and pans or towels and such.  That's the first part of the issue.

The second part is that I envisioned neat rows of cardboard boxes in more or less numerical order.  Wrong.  Since I spent most of my time packing, I did not get to see the storage room much until after we had fitted in the two rugs I sent out for cleaning at the last minute.  I say "fitted in" because by the time the rugs got there, there was just about enough room to shoehorn them in.  When I opened the storage room door, there was almost no room to stand inside the room.  So much for making a nice list of the boxes I wanted to get to first because they contained things I could use as I settled into Amagansett.

I was so frustrated.  Then the advice finally got through.  I could continue to be frustrated because I couldn't locate or get to what I wanted or I could regard the whole thing as a treasure hunt.  I would simply take out boxes as I could reach them and see what I found inside.  A treasure hunt.  And that's what it has turned out to be.  I'm finding things I almost forgot I had, let alone that I had packed them.

My favorite item surfaced when a friend delivered a chest of drawers that was somehow accessible for removal and would help out a lot at the Amagansett house (I hate the idea of buying something when I know I have it somewhere already).  As it was moved out of the bed of the pickup truck that had transported it,  he looked down and asked if I had dropped my watch.  No, it was still on my wrist.  Wonder what this is.  I looked.  It was a watch I had bought a few years ago.  Not very expensive but it was a shape and design I liked and seldom saw.  Also it was purchased on a girls weekend trip with my daughters and a dear friend.  I was so sure that I had packed it in things I took with me on my road trip, that I had turned all my bags and boxes upside down more than once in a search for it, but to no avail.  Now suddenly here it was again.  I have no idea how it failed to get taken out of the drawer or how it stayed in there despite all the moving around, but here it is now.  Now that's what I call a treasure hunt.