Down Time

We are alive and well and have spent a quiet three weeks here in Charles Town since returning from the cruise.  Superstorm Sandy did no damage to Charles Town and we didn’t even lose our electricity.  We watch with sadness the continuing efforts at returning to something close to normal in New York and New Jersey after they were hit hard with the double whammy of Sandy and Athena. It is amazing how low coastal areas don’t have more protection from these storms and things are only going to get worse, until and unless decision makers get their collective heads out of the sand and realize that ‘we’ are responsible for global warming.  If they don’t, we are going to see more and more destruction and loss of human life.  I’ll bet the good folks in Venice Italy wish they had worked a little faster on their Mose Project.

On Halloween morning we drove to Dulles and picked up my sister Cathy who came for a four-day visit.  It was wonderful to sit around and just catch and talk about all the crazy things our family did as we were growing up.  Lots of laughs and lots of fun and I did a lot of cooking, which is always relaxing.   My sister had never seen me teach so it was a revelation for her when she came to my wine presentation at the Casino.  Once again I had a group of about a dozen people who work at the high-end restaurant called Final Cut.  My topic for that day was Champagne and Sparkling Wine and we had six bottles to taste while I gave them some facts, history and amusing details regarding Champagne.

One of the highlights of my sister’s visit was going to the 92^nd birthday party for our dear Aunt Dot , who continues to be a gorgeous, intelligent and kind woman. She was always my mother’s favorite sister and our favorite aunt.  We had a lot of fun visiting with our cousins and other assorted relatives. I’ve never been very good about understanding how folks are related so unless someone tells me otherwise, I just assume I’m related to everyone in the room.

We spent a few days in the yard getting everything ready for the winter.  Just before we were expecting Hurricane Sandy my grandson Patrick and I tied off everything on the deck and in the yard that could have possibly become airborne, so that task was accomplished already. What was left was for me to rototill the garden, which took a few hours and a few Aleves but I got the job done and we are ready for next year. Cindy had gone though the garden removing anything that might have fouled the rototiller while at the same time harvesting the last of the sweet potatoes that had invaded the garden.  This photo below shows about a third of the crop, so needless to say I’ve been reading a lot of recipes for sweet potatoes!  I’ve also been busy with ‘The Door,” which is looking better and better by the day.  I hope to give it a final coat before we leave on Thursday which will give it a few weeks to completely dry. Then we have to figure out what we are going to do with it.

We are now in the process of organizing our thoughts and clothes for our next adventure.  We’ll be flying to Nice on Thursday for a few weeks of exploration and some periodic episodes of work, Cindy for her new gig with a new online university and me for the good folks at the National Board for Certified Counselors.  We plan on using a lot of public transportation since they have great bus service up and down the Riviera and for one Euro each we can travel for hours in any direction from Nice which will allow us to have lovely day trips without a car.

Adieu, Cindy and Wm

Aunt Dot's 92nd Birthday Bash

Cindy's Marvelous Sweet Potatoes