Life is Short, Enjoy it!

For Bob Van Epps:

I found out today that one of my dear friends and avid readers of our blog has passed away from complications from cancer.  Cindy and I met Bob Van Epps and his wife Sharyn while living in Germany in the 80’s.  They were both with the Department of Defense Dependents’ Schools (DoDDS) and we would run across each other several times every year when we would enjoy long and lovely dinners.  Bob - whom I always called Roberto do to his affection for Italy - was a man of many interests.  Extremely well read, a master of several languages, a brilliant student of written and spoken English, and a consummate gourmand.

During our time in Bahrain, it was Roberto who would patiently respond to my blogs with explanations and sometimes corrections and often witticisms.  He was the one who in infinite detail explained how sugar undergoes a molecular meltdown when added to microwaved coffee, which is why it all erupted out of the mug. While in Moscow he would fill in some of my blog observations with historical context, while at the same time letting me know which brands of vodka were drinkable. It was Roberto who would take one of my phrases and write back with three optional alternatives, all of which were much more descriptive.  He used words the way an expert mason uses mortar and he built strong and beautiful walls of prose. 

We last met in the fall when, in typical Roberto fashion, he sent us directions to an Italian grocery store in the middle of some non-descript warehouse area out on New York Avenue in Washington. We managed to find it – Bob and Sharyn were already there - and for the next hour we wandered around this cramped store that was filled from ceiling to floor with all things comestible from Italy.  We examined the wines, selected the olive oils, loaded up on pastas and picked the best of the freshly made sausages and cheeses, all the while listening to the Roberto’s narratives explaining the details of all the products, their place of birth and their brief histories.  We left with as much new knowledge as we did Italian products!

I shall miss his pithy comments on my writing as well as his companionship at dinners.  He was a remarkable individual who died too young.     

Travel Tutelage

I’ve mentioned that we have had to catch up on a lot of deferred maintenance issues, especially in the garden.  Over the past six weeks while Cindy has been cultivating the garden, I’ve been trimming lots and lots of bushes and trees. The result has been an eyesore of stacked branches under our evergreens and it was suggested by Cindy that I get rid of them, and fast. (Note from Cindy:  I contributed to the trimming and I never ever tell Wm to do anything, especially not fast!!)

Our neighbors have been doing a lot of work on their yard and they were going to install some underground irrigation.  I came across a whole box of irrigation related tools, spray heads, piping and connectors while cleaning out the garage last weekend so I thought they might be able to use my treasures.  I knew they had a line on lots of contractors and day jobbers so I thought I’d get some advice from them when I brought over the box of goodies.  About an hour after dropping things off, two people were at my door offering their services.  One of them I recognized as their son, a lad of about 18, recently graduated from high school and brilliant in math. The other was one of their laborers and they both were eager to help me get the job done.

As we were working I got the young man, Carlos, to open up about himself and discovered that he was heading to Europe for the first time this Friday as part of a guided trip for high school grads.  He was so excited to learn that Cindy and I had lived in Europe for a dozen years and he started asking lots of questions.  His itinerary is Madrid, Barcelona, “somewhere in the south of France,” Paris, Florence, Venice and Rome; and yes, all in twelve days! As we clipped and chopped, we also talked and talked about his trip and I had tons of suggestions.  At some point I mentioned eating biscotti with espresso and neither one of them had heard of this cookie so rather they try to explain, I went into the house and brought out two of them for their edification.  They were enthralled with the treat and that got us talking more and more about food and drink available in Europe. 

Carlos is bilingual in Spanish and English and he thought he would have no trouble while in Spain and Italy.  It did give me an opportunity to teach him a few local words, like asking for a caña instead of a cerveza as they call beer in many Spanish-speaking countries, or a copa de blanco instead of un vaso de vino blanco. Well we had a ball talking and working and soon it was all done and the place looked like a million bucks.  I paid the other worker in dollars but paid Carlos in Euros and gave him a quick primer on the paper currency and coins.  I also gave unsolicited grandfatherly advice about how to avoid getting ripped off by Romas (gypsies) and others.  He was just thrilled with the information and money.  Today we brought over a note along with a First Class toilet kit I had from United so that he would at least have a few amenities on the long flight to Madrid. 

Another note from Cindy: I heard much of this conversation and nearly went over and told them to get back to work, and fast!  Just kidding - it was really cool to hear that Carlos was so enthusiastic and that he knew to ask so many questions.

Modern Tale of Two Cities

Modern Tale of Two Cities

The plan was simple:  Take advantage of a very inexpensive airfare from Dulles to London and get a big bunch of United miles.  I’m very close to my second million miles with United and when I get that, I’ll have Gold Status/Executive Premier for me and for Cindy for the rest of our lives.  This is important to us since we live near Dulles, which is a major United hub, so we are mostly condemned to fly with them.  This status gets us free checked luggage, access to all the Star Alliance lounges worldwide, better seats in Economy Plus, priority screening and boarding, and a host of other little perks.  I felt that the quick trip would be worth the inconvenience of international coach, but I had aisle seats on exit rows so I knew it wouldn’t be too bad.

My first leg was to depart Dulles at 3:30 for Toronto where I was to connect to a flight for London at 6:30 pm, arriving at Heathrow at 7 am.  While at Heathrow I had planned to take a quick shower and change clothes, do some duty free shopping and then hop on the noon flight back to Dulles.  I had a small bag with a change of underwear and shirt so it was a snap to park in the covered lot, walk to the terminal and head upstairs to get boarding passes for my flights.  United, however, had other ideas.  They could only get me my boarding pass for the first leg to Toronto, which meant I would have to find the connecting desk in Toronto to get my Air Canada boarding pass, and hopefully, my UA boarding pass to return to Dulles the next day.  I cleared ID checks quickly but then realized that getting through security was going to be a very, very long affair. They only had two lines open on a Sunday afternoon, and the place was filled with families and foreigners and the lines moved very slowly.

There must have been a Daisy Mae look alike contest in Washington this weekend since so many of the women I saw were in short, short cutoffs, halter tops and flip flops.  95% of them should have been wearing muumuus or burkas to shield us from the flaps of flesh hanging out everywhere!  It is painful to watch clueless travelers going though security.  The TSA agents are always telling the passengers in the lines to remove this and that, get out laptops, get out liquids, remove shoes, etc. and yet every second person would forget to do something requiring them to start over and holding up the line even more.  It took a full forty-five minutes to get though security and by then I was really ready for a drink.

I went to the British Air Terrace Lounge, which is open to folks who have a Priority Pass membership.  The lounge was almost empty and by 1:30 I was sitting in front of floor to ceiling windows, Champagne in hand, watching the planes come and go. At 2:15 I went next door to the Lufthansa lounge (Star Alliance Member) and got a few sandwiches, which I placed in my bag for the flight.  I stopped by See’s Candy and purchased some lollipops, which I hand out to flight attendants as bribes for better service.  It works!

By 3 pm I was at the assigned gate waiting for boarding.  To make a long story short, there was a toilet-related accident on the incoming flight and they announced that it was going to take two hours to clean the aircraft since they needed to have a Scrub team, similar to Hazmat, come on board.  You know things are bad when the crew comes off because of the stench.

This delay meant that I was going to miss my connection on Air Canada so I quickly went to the United Club.  I told them I had to get to London since I had to pick up an important package and asked if there was anything they could do to help me.  Of course I first gave them some lollipops when I greeted them so they were inclined to help. The Amazing Elizabeth, which is what I called the agent, got right on the problem and in about five minutes she asked if I was willing to go from Dulles to Paris, Paris to London, and then London back to Dulles, arriving an hour later than planned.  I jumped on the chance and she did some more tapping and then looked at me and said some of the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard, “There is only one seat left on the flight to Paris and it is in First Class. I hope that is alright?”  I was stunned but delighted.  She gave me all three boarding passes and said I should head to the gate very soon. 

I boarded the 767-300 and took my seat, 1A. These are suite seats that are very comfortable, convert to lay-flat beds and have on demand movies on 15’ monitors.  I just counted my blessings and never once looked towards the back of the plane. There are only six seats in First and one of them is blocked for a rest area for the cockpit crew, so with one flight attendant to five guests, the service should have been excellent.  It wasn’t!  First of all, they announced that due to an announced strike by the airline caterers in France, they were carrying not only the food and drink for this outbound flight but also for the return, which meant that they didn’t really have enough space to allow for choices.  Coach was told that they would get a chicken sandwich; business would get either a pasta or chicken dish, and first class would get fish, chicken or pasta. They were very apologetic and embarrassed, but that was how things were to be.  If I had paid for First Class, I would have been as disappointed as three of the five passengers. They had to constantly ask for things that should have been proffered.  They didn’t have any First Class wines and the food was really awful, but I kept my mouth shut except to eat and drink some wine, and then I slept like a baby for five of the seven and a half hours.  I woke up feeling wonderful and the gear came down and we landed right on schedule at 7 am at a rainy CDG.

We arrived at Terminal One and I had to get to Terminal 2A for my flight on British Air to London, scheduled to depart at 10:40.  I followed the signs to the bus gate and waited only about fifteen minutes for the bus, which stopped at six other gates before depositing me at 2A about thirty minutes later. They say that the connections are only twenty minutes but I suppose with lousy weather it takes longer. I didn’t care since I had lots of time and the fresh air and moisture were most welcomed.

Going though security again was time consuming and finding my way to the gate was even more frustrating since it involved going up and down stairs.  Charles de Gaulle is a really horrible airport.  I finally found the gate and was told that I could go up the stairs I had just come down and use the Cathay Pacific Lounge.  This was a small place but well stocked and I was rather hungry so I tucked into two pancakes with real Canadian maple syrup, two bottles of water and some decent coffee.  I spend an hour on the computer in the lounge and realized that I was ready for Champagne.  The joy of not getting into any time zone is that you really don’t care what time the clock says, just what your body says, and my body was yearning for Champagne so I took a break and had a lovely glass of Lanson Brut while looking at more food choices.  Since this was Cathay Pacific, they had a wonderful noodle bar so I had a steaming bowl of noodles with chicken and a bracing glass of Sancerre. 

It was now getting close to boarding time so I headed back to the gate and waited in line for the bus to take us out to the plane.  The bus was filled with well-behaved high school kids from California on the grand tour of Europe and it was fun listening to their stories of adventures in Italy and France.  I was in Club Europe, which means business class. That means that they block the middle seat but otherwise all the seats on the Airbus are the same.  The BA crew were very nice and efficient and managed to serve cocktails and nuts, a snack of cold salmon and crème fraiche, fresh rolls, hot tea and biscuits and figs.  I asked them if they had carried this food with them from London, relating the story we were told about the strike in France. They had no knowledge of the strike and they had catered all the food and drink in France. 

We were delayed by weather for about thirty minutes, which meant I had to get from Terminal 5 to Terminal 1 very quickly upon landing.  I must say, I need to reevaluate my opinion of the British in terms of their organization.  Unlike CDG this trip only took fifteen minutes, even though the distances were greater.  Security was quick and easy and I even had a few minutes to buy some shortbread cookies.  I used the Star Alliance lounge to clean up a bit and had a glass of water and cup of tea before heading to the gate - about a ten minute walk which I found refreshing.

The Amazing Elizabeth had seated me in Business Class for the return flight.  It was on a 757, which is a single aisle aircraft, but since there is no First Class the 16 Business Class seats are up front and they are the sleeper suites, which means lay-flat beds.  I talked to the purser and gave him the lollipops to distribute to the flight attendants.  He told me that we were the only four people in Business and to take any seat we wanted.  One older couple took the front two seats and I took a row of two on the right side of the plane since I wanted to see Cornwall and Ireland before sleeping. 

I asked why there were so few business passengers and was told that the 777-200 left completely full at noon and that this was a new service and no one seemed to know about it.  I loved the space and the quiet, and unlike the outbound this flight was full service and it was excellent.   I had the salad and appetizers of seared tuna but skipped the meal since I wasn’t really hungry.  The food looked good and they kept trying to get me to change my mind but I opted instead for some lovely Heidsieck Monopole Blue Brut, a Michel Lynch Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc and a bottle of water.  I was intrigued by the reds and thought I would sample them with some cheese.  Unfortunately they were all very powerful, the lightest was 13.5% alcohol and the other two were 14.5% so I skipped them.

Cornwall and Ireland were beautiful to see from above and the weather was just lovely.  As soon as we passed Ireland I lowered the shades and made my bed and slept for four hours.  I woke up to see Boston, New York and Philadelphia before we landed at Dulles on time.  I was out of the airport in twenty minutes and heading home a mere twenty- two hours after the journey began.  Some fun and lots of miles!  (Here is a picture of my seat to Paris.)  William

Casa Embee Swallows

Dear Bird Lovers,

We had a lovely family of swallows using our bluebird house, which is in our new vegetable garden.  We have been watching them for a month and for the past two days they have provided our major source of entertainment. Yes, I know, we should get a life!

We think they had five eggs, but it was hard to tell since they were all atop one another and we didn’t want to damage the fragile shells.  We watched as the parents would take turns sitting on the eggs. One would sit with her/his beak sticking out to receive food from the other. Then all of a sudden both parents were making lots of runs to feed the new hatchlings as they started to break out of their shells.  We think it was about twelve days from the time they hatched until the time they fledged.  We only saw four of them fledge, but we might have missed one since it two full days for them to get the message that mom and dad were ready for the empty nest.  The one we called Otto was very large and therefore the first to fledge. Once they were ready to leave the nest they would hop out of the box and jump/fly to the roof. There they would preen and test their wings and wait for mom or dad to feed them one or two more times.  After about thirty minutes they would just leap into the sky to be met by a parent with some food and then they would fly away.  About twenty minutes after all the birds were gone, Cindy and I opened the box with the intention of cleaning it for the next birds.  Almost as soon as we did that, mom, dad and the five young ones came from nowhere and started to dive-bomb us. We quickly closed the box but they didn’t enter or return; I guess they were just homesick for a little bit.

Last night during cocktail hour we noticed that there were a couple of Carolina Wrens taking bits of the old nest that we removed and rebuilding their own little love nest in the box.  I tell you, this box is prime real estate.

http://gallery.me.com/wbyxbee#100544

Anything Can Happen Day

Way back in the late 1950’s I used to love to watch the Mickey Mouse Club. Each day of the week had a special show theme, which was reflected in the various segments. The themes were:

Monday - Fun with Music
Tuesday - Guest Star
Wednesday - Anything Can Happen
Thursday - Circus
Friday - Talent Round-up

My favorite was Wednesdays since no one ever knew what was going to happen and it was always a cool surprise.  As I’ve gotten older I have always tried to ‘schedule’ an “anything can happen day” periodically, just for the heck of it.  Last Friday was a picture perfect day here in West Virginia and I got the idea that it would be fun to have an Anything Can Happen Day.  I wasn’t quite sure what the theme would be until I opened the fridge and saw a bunch of leftovers that just screamed Provence.  I announced to Cindy that I would be hosting a Provençal luncheon and she was invited to attend at 2:15.

I set to work repurposing the leftovers and converted some boiled potatoes into a garlicky delight.  Then I sliced some cold tuna and decorated it with a Dijonaise mayo; the green beans were tossed with a little olive oil and balsamic, and for color I sliced up lots of little, sweet cherry tomatoes. I poached two eggs in boiling water with a touch of red wine vinegar to help them set and give them a slight rosé color.  I placed these over some arugula which had been tossed with a little sesame oil.  I assembled everything, got the bread ready for toasting and set the table outside.  I then brought the water, ice and glasses needed for our Ricard outside, including little bowls of almonds and Fritos (not many people know that Fritos are a French invention).

All was ready, the Rosé chilled, the plates ready, and the pastis begging to be enjoyed.  At 2:15 I called Cindy to lunch and much to my delight and amazement, she came into the kitchen dressed to the nines, with make-up, hair quaffed, jewelry sparkling and sheathed in a lovely dress. Talk about Anything Can Happen Day!

http://gallery.me.com/wbyxbee#100527

 

The Ides of March

Ah, the Ides of March, and here in Charles Town we only had to beware of sunburn.  The temperature hit 85, with warm breezes and very clear skies.  Just a delightful day and we spent much of it doing a bit of organizational gardening.  Yesterday our Charles Town grandkids had the day off so I picked them up at ten with every intention of working their little fingers to the bone in the garden.  Instead we ended up feeding them twice in three hours.  Cindy made them cheesy eggs and toast, with some fresh fruit and milk.  I finally got them to stop eating for a while but had forgotten that I had told Patrick he could try on some of my shirts, shoes and ties. He has parties coming up and wanted to look sharp.  We finally got them outside at about 11:15 and we got a solid hour’s worth of work. They really are hard workers and we cleaned up the back yard in preparation for gardening and landscaping, which we’ll do in a few weeks.

Before lunch we had them set up the new tent we gave them for an early Easter gift.  Colin and Meagan are coming back in early April for a ten-day visit/conference, and the kids are going camping with Colin while Meagan attends her conference.  Cindy and I realized that it has been a very, very long time since we camped.  Anyone who knows me well understands that roughing it to me means a five star hotel without twenty-four hour room service.  I think the last time I camped my tent consisted of a blanket hung over a clothesline that had been strung between two trees.  I remember pounding sticks into the corners of the blanket and thought the tent was just perfect.

Today however, everything is high tech and Cindy and I just stood there in amazement as this little bag of stuff became a three person dome with three windows with screens, an entry mud room and a clever little mesh thing that is used to hold your personal items like wallets, money, cell phones etc.  Patrick and Hannah had absolutely no difficulty setting the thing up in a matter of minutes.  I excused myself and went into the kitchen to finish the chicken vegetable soup; at least I knew how to use things correctly in the kitchen.

Some of you had asked about the merry go round that was in the park in Nice. It was certainly something that really captured my imagination.  The park had been taken over by face painters, mimes, clowns, kid friendly theatre and this magnificent merry go round.  The animals seemed to have been created from driftwood and they were imaginative and sometimes a bit scary.  In order for the thing to go around, parents had to use the see saw which was linked to the gears of the platform. The faster they went up and down the faster the merry go round went. All the time they are powering the thing, the proprietor was dressed in a duster with a cool hat and was playing this lovely piano with music that might have been heard during the screening of a silent movie.  Very cool experience.  Here are some photos, including a couple of our friend Mary with a deflated exercise ball on her head.   As you can see, we had a wild and crazy time.

Best to all, Cindy and Wm

Retirement Thus Far

Charles Town

March 8, 2012

Cindy has been on my case to do a bit of blogging since many of you are concerned about our welfare and, having not heard from us in a while, are a bit worried.  Rest easy, we are well.  I started the blog when we moved to Bahrain and continued it in Moscow because it as all new and exciting to us and we wanted to share our sense of wonder and our daily joys and frustrations.  Having moved back to Charles Town I just didn’t see the need for writing, despite the fact that we still have exciting adventures, albeit, mostly local.  So, I’ll try to summarized what we have been up to and then I’ll periodically send out a message or discuss some finer points of cooking, eating and wine consumption.

We have been having a ball since leaving Moscow. I got Cindy to give me nine months before she did any more work and we have spent almost all of it traveling. We’ve been to Europe a few times and took two long cruises.  The first was a twelve-day; I think I wrote about that, to the holy land.  Then a few weeks later we headed out for fifteen days to transit the Panama Canal.   The Queen Victoria is a magnificent vessel. It is only about six years old and in the grand tradition of Cunard, it is a little slice of England afloat.  The public rooms are what you would expect, filled with gleaming woods and glimmering brass.  The dining room was exquisite, both in appearance and quality of food. Lots of stained glass, etched glass and wood everywhere.  It was large but cleverly divided so as to give the appearance of smaller, more intimate sections.  The have an English Pub that is as authentic as you can imagine and always filled with Brits from opening at 11am to closing at 2am. They have all the traditional furniture, beers and ales and lively entertainment you would expect from Bristol to Birmingham. They even had nightly quizzes that only Brits would enjoy or even understand.

We are convinced that Cunard dumped all the remaining cabins on the bucket shops of England about three weeks before the cruise departed.  Lots and lots of the people we saw could not possibly have paid what we did. We did hear many of them talking about the great bargain which included airfare.  These were plump pink folks who came from quaint places like Bumble on Berry, Clydesdale on Dung and Clueless on Rude.  They were there for the sun, booze and food and boy did they get a lot of all three. Since the food and sun were free, they took every advantage of both and it was fun to watch them turn from pasty white to lobster red over the course of the first week.  Since they could eat from 5am to 2am they did and that doesn’t count the 24hour room service. I was amazed to see folks eating traditional English breakfast, laden with pork products, beans, eggs, toast and jams at 10am and then online again for the luncheon buffet at 11:30. I’ve no idea where they ate between 10:45 and 11:30 but I’m sure they were indulging.  Most of these folks took their tea on the deck since that was where the sun was.  One of them would go and get all the sandwiches and pastries and bring the out to their sunning area, and then the other would go in for the tea so as not to abandon their staked out deck chairs.  Fortunately Cunard does not allow anyone in the dining rooms for the evening feed without formal or semi formal attire so most of the cheap Brits took their meals at the Lido buffet where large loose clothing was allowed.

Some of our stops were wonderful but most were just the pits.  We departed from Ft. Lauderdale so we were able to get to Florida a week before the cruise, which allowed us to go and visit our kids and grandkids in the Sarasota area. That was tons of fun. We then had two days of sailing before hitting Aruba. We have spent lots of time there before so we just got off to get a coffee and use free Wi-Fi. It is more fun to stay on board ships when everyone else is off touring. Lots to do and lots of open spaces. The canal was great, nothing like I thought it would be.  It was more like traveling though a rain forest river, with tons of wild life on both sides of the shoreline.  The first stop after the canal was Puentas Arenas in Costa Rica.  I had always pictured Costa Rica as the Switzerland of Central America.  Perhaps that is the case in the hills but this place was featured in the NYT as the drug capital of Costa Rica. It was dirty and run down, not what I might have expected in Costa Rica.  We walked to a covered market since I always like them, but we got within a block and the smell was so bad we just turned away and headed back to the ship.

Nicaragua was worst. We pulled in and docked at a merchant dock where there was another ship offloading some type of grain with clamshell shaped lifters. All day long the air was filled with the dust and shaft of this grain and the balconies and decks were covered with a thin film of this junk. The city itself was filled with hookers, beggars and smells that one associates more with purification than sea air.  Thankfully we didn’t go on any arranged tours since we hear from those that did that they were disorganized and horribly overpriced.  Instead we enjoyed the quiet of the ship since most everyone when ashore and we had the joint to ourselves.

Guatemala was a bit nicer in that we were at a tourist port and while there was on city or town nearby, there was a large ‘tourist’ area at the end of the pier filled with vendors, shops, bars and restaurants all catering to cruise ships. The two stops in Mexico were not worth discussing. They cancelled the stop in Acapulco for safety reasons, which is one place I really wanted to visit.  Poor Mexico is getting slammed in the tourist department due to the drug cartels efforts to kill as many people as possible.

We did meet some nice folks. We enjoyed the staff of the ship and the captain, a Danish woman, was delightful and ran a tight ship.  If you haven’t done the canal, it is worth it, but it can be done in eight or nine days and you certainly don’t need fifteen.  We mostly go on cruises so that we can dance the night away and that we certainly did.  We danced, and danced and danced and loved every minute of it.

A few weeks ago we went to Nice for Carnival. We rented an apartment in the Old City of Nice and some friends , Roberto and Maria, who teach in Milan came to visit. My oh my, did we have a grand time.  We really didn’t know that it was Carnival time when we made our reservations but it was surely a value added. The place was jumping all day and all night with grand parades and colorful floats.  The theme of the Carnival was Sports in Nice, so all the floats had that as a theme. I’ll see about getting some photos posted to this site. One day we drove to Antibes for the Sunday market and we walked all around the harbor, the largest in the area.  It needs to be large to handle these babies.  There are lots of great places to eat that are affordable and we had our fill of oysters and rosé.  We shall surely go back there again.

So that in a nutshell is what it is like to be retired!   With best wishes,  Cindy and Wm