It stopped snowing

This morning Ariel slept in until almost 7. After
breakfast she watched "Pinky and the Brain" while
she did a fantastic job of "keeping the fire
going" in the fireplace, as Robert asked her to do.

The fresh snowfall looked really lovely this morning,
but the 5 degree temperature not so lovely. We
waited until it warmed up a bit and then went outside
to help Robert clear out some of the snow.



















Ariel and her "baby."













In the afternoon Ariel cut and pasted and made herself
a book titled "Africa."

Busy day with Ariel

Ariel and I have had a busy day. A picture being
worth a thousand words I'll say no more.








Ariel brought the music for "The Nutcracker Suite" and is dancing
to the music.















Ariel's Christmas doll house. Not finished, but a good start.

Christmas

Christmas morning at the Cowley's














Ariel, with her robot parrot








Grandpa and Grammy





Christmas eve Vernon came up for dinner. We had an
enjoyable evening with him.

Christmas day we went to Carl's for breakfast, arriving
there about 8 AM. We had a magnificent breakfast and then
opened presents. It was fun, low keyed, and amusing. Of
course Ariel was wired, but she did OK. Robert and I
are now the owners of a digital frame which I have set up in
the living room. So far, we are displaying pictures that
Carl put in it for us, as a sample. We are going to make up
flash card programs so we can change the display as the mood
fits.

Connie gave us a start-up kit for a voice-over-internet. We
have the camera and microphone and software. Since Ariel is
here for the holiday I have not even tried to set that up
yet.


As mentioned above, Ariel is here for the school vacation.
The plan was for her to be here just during the day, but the
forecast for today is such that Carl is bringing her up this
morning, since he has a new 4-wheel-drive vehicle and she'll
stay over. By tomorrow afternoon the road should be such
that I'll have no problem taking her home in the afternoon.
Yesterday we put together her decorator doll house, or
rather we have it partially put together. The front wall is
up and the 3-stories of floors are in, but the side walls
are not in nor the lighting. I think I'll do the lighting
when Ariel is not around.

Finished wrapping the boat

Robert checking out the boat-wrap







We had to give up on finishing covering the boat yesterday
because the snow was coming down hard and heavy. It didn't
amount to a heck of a lot, not compared to what is happening
in other parts of the country. We got another 3 or 4 inches
I would guess. This morning Robert swept the snow off the
tarp we had put on yesterday and I helped him put on a more
water proof one over it. It is a precarius job at some
points because the boat hangs out over the creek. In order
to tie the green tarp down Robert put a rope through a
grommet of the part of the tarp that is over the boat and
over hanging the creek. He tied the other end to a cement
block and then let the block swing out over the creek. He
did that on one side and used an old tire on the other side.
I think it is secure enough now, I hope. It is cold out
there today, high was 19 and low 10.

We have a nightly visitor. I think from the tracks that it
is a dog, but it is coming down from the mountain, not up
from the road. I'm not sure where it is coming from. But,
the neighbors say there have been two sightings of mountain
lions in the last two days. The last one, the lion was
walking down the middle of the road.

In the mail today was a card from Ed Reed, cousin Sally's
husband. He wrote, "as you know, Sally died last January,
but I know she would want me to send out cards using her
Christmas list." Well, I didn't know. I am dismayed that
I didn't know. Neither Cal nor Mary let me know and I don't
understand why.

And more snow

This morning I went to town to have coffee with Jo. We met
at her house and walked over to the Bookends, the coffee
shop attached to the Boulder Book Store. She told me a wild
tale of some pro bono work they are doing for a young gay man
who is in prison for fraud. He is suing the prison system
because he has been raped and horribly. Jo didn't go into
the details except that it was awful. The system keeps
moving him around, but the gangs spot him as soon as he
enters a new system. They have a network so when he arrives
at a new prison he is slipped a note that says something to
the affect that we know who you are. Jo has renewed her
license so both she and Alf are working on this case. The
law part flew over my head, but I gather that is the
interesting part for them although they also are horrified
that what happened to him could happen.
This morning I went to town to have coffee with Jo. We met
at her house and walked over to the Bookends, the coffee
shop attached to the Boulder Book Store. She told me a wild
tale of some probono work they are doing for a young gay man
who is in prison for fraud. He is suing the prison system
because he has been raped and horribly. Jo didn't go into
the details except that it was awful. The system keeps
moving him around, but the gangs spot him as soon as he
enters a new system. They have a network so when he arrives
at a new prison he is slipped a note that says something to
the affect that we know who you are. Jo has renewed her
license so both she and Alf are working on this case. The
law part flew over my head, but I gather that is the
interesting part for them although they also are horrified
that what happened to him could happen.

After coffee I went to McGuckens to pick up some things for
Christmas presents I'm making for Viki and Marti and then
came home.

We had a quick, light lunch and then out to the barn to dig
out a tarp and structure to cover the sailboat which Robert
had moved from the shed out between the RV and the creek.
We started about 12:45 PM and finished about 1:45 PM and
during that time it started to snow. By the time we
finished there was at least an inch of snow on the tarp
covering the sailboat. We couldn't have started any later
and gotten the job done. As it was Robert had to put a
ladder into the creek and climb down it to reach the ropes
at the back end of the boat so he could tie down the tarp.
It was a bit tricky because the boat hangs out over the
creek and there is a good rock wall on the road side of the
creek, but with all the snow it wasn't too clear where the
wall was and where it might just be snow hanging over the
edge.

Now it is snowing so hard I can barely see across the
street. The prediction was 60% possiblity of light snow
with accumulation of 1 inch. We still have a couple of feet
of snow left from the last snow storms. I think we are in
for a long snowy winter at this rate. The skiers are happy.

later, 7:30 PM:

Oh M'gosh, it is still snowing hard. All traces of the walk are
gone. There is still so much ice on the walk that, now with all
this snow it'll be more difficult. Robert will be busy tomorrow
with the snow blower.

I didn't go out to get the mail. It doesn't arrive until sometime
after 4 and/or it may be dark. We'll wait to see what tomorrow
brings. Fortunately, we don't have to go anywhere tomorrow or
Sunday.

Ryan and Rochelle have been here.

Rochelle













Ryan









Ryan and Rochelle have been here the last three
days. They are Jeanne's children and it was wonderful having
them here. One day the three of us went shopping, another
day the two of them went to the Butterfly Pavilion and the
Pearl Street Mall where they discovered the Boulder Book
Store. They are both avid readers and thoroughly enjoyed
browsing the store and were impressed by it's size and
collections. Rochelle purchased 7 books and Ryan 3.
Yesterday the four of us went to Denver to the Museum of
Nature and Science. They went to a show at the Planetarium
after looking at some of the exhibits. Robert and I looked
at a few exhibits and then I sat and read while he went to
the Mineral collection exhibit. We all met at the Cafe and
had lunch at 1 PM. We then came home so they would have
time to pack before we took them to catch the 6 PM shuttle
to DIA.

Each morning while they were here I fixed a brunch. This
gave them a chance to sleep in as late as 10:30 AM. We had
brunch at 11. Robert and I had a light breakfast at 7 while
we watched the news each morning, before the kids got up.
The newspaper had a bunch of brunch recipes from local B&Bs
just days before they came. I fixed a french toast
casserole which was very good, but way too much for four.
The second day we had a quiche and the third day I warmed up
the casserole.

On Tuesday evening I fixed a prime rib as an early Christmas
dinner. Vernon came, but Ariel was sick so Carl and Martha
had to cancel at the last minute.

Before the kids came my washer quit on me again. Today the
service man showed up. I had tried to reset the program to
no avail, but he was able to do that by setting the machine
the way I had set it the last time and then turning on the
power, then turning everything off and finally the power. He
then set it up to run again and it worked. Maybe by the
time the three-year warranty runs out I'll have learned all
the ways to screw up the computer inside of it. They do
have a way of "clearing" it, but that didn't work this time!
Today, I finally did the load I had tried to do last Sunday.
It is a beautiful sunny day and on the porch it is 60
degrees. I have hung the wash on the line, but not until
after the sun left that area. I don't think it'll get dry
today.

I had my leg checked yesterday. We stopped at Dr. Ho's
office for my appointment, on our way to the museum. It
took less than 10 minutes for me to go in, be seated in his
office and for him to check the leg. I thought it looked
awful, but he said it looks really good. Some people have a
reaction to the chemo such that the area where the basal
cell is swells up and really looks like a big red ball at
the site. Mine does not look like that, thank goodness.

Still more snow

More snow. The last snow is still with us, too. This is so
unusual for us. Usually the snow comes, the wind comes and
the snow disappears or else the sun comes out and the snow
disappears. This year and last that hasn't happened. The
snow comes and stays. Not nice.

I have canceled my hair appoint three times because of
taking friends to the doctor or because of the weather. I
finally had an appointment for ten this morning, but now I'm
taking Julie for an MRI instead. Nancy, bless her heart,
has rescheduled me one more time. I'll take Julie this
morning and go back this afternoon and get my hair done at
three.

Yesterday I had lunch with Karen at LePeep's and went to the
Carnegie after lunch. I finished up the Ardurel collection.
After Canregie I went to KingSoopers and have the groceries
I think I'll need for the next week.

Ryan and Rochelle arrive Sunday afternoon. While they are
here we are going to have brunch instead of breakfast so
they can sleep until ten or so. I have a bunch of recipes
from local B & B's that were in the paper not too long ago.
They sound really good so I shall prepare some of those.

Susan has been having a hard time with the chemo. She has
felt sick most of the week. Yesterday they hydrated her and
will do that again on Monday. They also gave her a
different nausea pill. I hope she feels better.

On the political front, I haven't done anything. I still
have my list of people to call to go to Caucuses, but that
will have to wait, now, until the new year. If I get a
chance between everything else I'll stop in at Jared's
headquarters to make my presence known.

More snow

More snow today. We had about a foot and now it has snowed
for the last 30 hours giving us about 8 inches more. I had
plans to go to town this morning and get my hair done and to
meet Karen for lunch. I canceled both. Karen and I'll try
for Thursday and hopefully I'll get my hair done on Friday.
I also have a zillion errands to run.

Yesterday we went to town to bring the RV back from the
RV repair center. The furnace has been repaired which
means we can use it again as a guest house.

Sunday morning Bob Gray came up to help Robert do some
outside wiring with respect to the solar set up. But,
we had enough snow here to make that unworkable. They
shoveled snow and Robert ran the snow blower instead. Later
they came in and Bob showed Robert some neat pieces of
software he could download. One allows him to enlarge his
screen by using an additional monitor. This allows him to
move things from screen to screen just by dragging them. He
also gave us come software to clean up some of the junk left
on our computers from software that never cleans up after
itself. We had a lentil and lamb curry soup for lunch with
some of the fruit bread that Robyn brought at Thanksgiving
and which I froze so we could have it some time later. This
was the some time. Bob brought his famous chocolate cake and
I had made a mince pie so we had bountiful desserts.

We watched "Memoirs of a Geisha" in the evening. The
scenery and costumes were gorgeous, but the movie was
disappointing. I should know better than to watch a movie
after I've read and enjoyed the book.

Still snowing

It continues to snow. We have about six inches of snow on
top of ice. The first snow was really wet, but the
temperature has dropped so the new snow is quite light and
fluffy.

Jeanne called this morning and we had a long chat on the
phone. I always enjoying hearing from my kids!

In the New York Times this morning there was an article
about the problems of pollution from dirty diesel trucks in
China. A woman shopkeeper was saying that by the end of the
day, from being in her open-air shop, her face is black from
soot. This took me back.

In 1948 I worked in Rochester, N. Y. at Bausch and Lomb optical
company. I was a clerk in the Engineering Department. One
of my tasks was to type mimeograph templates and then run
off multiple copies of various reports and sometimes of
drawings. I had quite a number of these to do each day
and the mimeograph machine was in a corner of the very
large room in which I and a dozen engineers worked.
The building was not air conditioned so I was happy to have
the window open by the machine. I soon discovered,
however, that after a session of running the copies
off on the machine one side of my face was black from
the soot coming in the window.

Although, I think our air is cleaner now, it isn't as clean
as it should be even here in pristine Boulder. I work one
day a week at the Carnegie Historic Library. I noticed when
I first started working that the flag in front of the building
was gray and ragged. Sometime later it was replaced, but now
the new one is not ragged, but the white stripes are gray,
not white.

E-mail from Julie late yesterday confirmed that she, too,
has breast cancer. I feel really sad for her; it has been
a difficult year already. Her dad is in the terminal stages
of cancer and has been released home, but he is not doing
well.

Pearl Harbor, Chemotherapy and Snow

Remember Pearl Harbor? I do. I was ten-years-old. My
brother and I had been invited by our neighbors, the
Woodmans to go with them to the Museum of Natural History.
We had just arrived at the Museum, the radio was on and
suddenly the sports cast was interrupted by the announcement
that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and destroyed most
of the Navy that had been stationed there. We listened
until the announcement was over; Woody turned off the radio
and we all sat there in stunned silence. Of course the war
in Europe had been going on for some time; Lend lease was
working; young men had entered the military voluntarily and
also through the Draft. But this was different. We had
been attacked. I don't remember the rest of the day. I
assume we turned around and went home. None of felt like
going to the Museum.

Back to the present. Yesterday I spent the day with Susan at
Dr. Caskey's office. This was her first chemotherapy session.
I picked her up at 9 AM at the hospital where she had been
taken by her friend, Connie Witt. The procedure at the
hospital had gone well and the line had been inserted,
in her chest above the offending breast. This line will
be used for all further chemical therapies. The three
of us went for breakfast at the Sunrise Cafe,near
Dr. Caskey's office.

After breakfast Connie went home and Susan and I went to the
doctor's office and to the therapy room. The doctor was
leaving at noon to go to a Conference in Atlanta so the
office was very quiet. One woman was already there getting
therapy, but only one. Susan and I staked out our places, I
next to her. The chairs are very comfortable, fortunately.
Susan would be in hers for the next 5 hours! Initially, we
had quite a lecture from Jenny, one of the nurses, about the
therapy and about what Susan should be doing to take care of
herself over the next year while she was undergoing all
these therapies.

Finally, at about 4:30 PM the last dose dribbled out. We
were both tired. I took Susan home where she was met by
Kirsten, her daughter. I stayed only long enough to give
them each a hug and headed home.

Susan is phenomenal. Her attitude is very positive and
she never whines. She manages to find something good
about each situation. Very impressive lady.
The traffic was terrible, but I arrived home safely around
7 PM. I had called Robert a couple times during the day to
let him know what was going on. Our road in Salina had been
glare ice in the morning, but it had melted during the day.
The roads in town were clear.

At last we have had snow, wet snow and in sufficient
quantities to help with our water problems. The
attached pictures are evidence of the snow. It is still
snowing. We expect to get several more inches today and
more is promised for the weekend.


The fish pond taken this morning.









The path from fish pond to barn








The bird feeder in the front yard; the bird got away.






All of the above pictures are actually colored pictures,
not black and white...it is a dark and stormy day.

Windy today

Today is very windy and warm, in the 60s. The creek is
finally running enough for a steady stream to come into the
pool. It's not a very heavy stream, but it is more than a
trickle. The water level has dropped about a foot since
water has stopped coming in. Between evaporation and leaks
we have lost a lot. The ice would form on the water and
then the water level would drop and with a loud crack the
ice would crack and some of it drop to a lower level. I can
see the fish through the opening in the ice. They seem to
be doing OK. Probably think it's spring now that the ice is
melting.

This morning I took Julie Luckey to Community Hospital at
Arapahoe and Foothills Highway. She was to have biopsies of
both breasts. Fortunately, it turned out that she only had
a cyst filled with fluid on one side, so that is good.
She'll hear tomorrow the results of the biopsy. I got her
home about 11:45 AM and helped her into the house. She was
going to lie down and watch TV and/or read and nap. She'll
call if she needs anything.

Susan called and I'm to pick her up on Thursday at the
Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge at 9 AM. We then will pick
up some breakfast for her and go on to Dr. Caskey's office
where she is to undergo 5 hours of chemo. YUK! I'm there
because they won't know how well she tolerates the drugs
this first time. I hope she does OK! Her HER2+ cancer is
supposedly really aggressive which is why she is getting so
much medication. They've told her to get a "Hard as Nails"
to use on her nails because they may split, crack or lift.
She also has to take steroids twice a day the day before, of
and after the chemo. She also must rinse her mouth after
each meal with salt water to try to prevent mouth sores.
And on top of that she'll lose all her body hair.

I talk to Jack Wenrich today. He has a terrible cold, but
other than that sounded OK. Katy has had a bad cold so he
probably got it from her. He doesn't need that.

Betty had her cataract surgery yesterday. I called her and
talked with Jack. She was in town with daughter, Janice.

A quiet Sunday

We had a little snow overnight, not enough to be significant
with respect to our water problems though. Yesterday a
little water was coming into the pool from the creek pipe,
but it has not continued today. The pool is frozen over
except for a very small whole over the aerator. The high
today was 40 degrees; the low last night about 25.

Today I used Google to get the names of the 35 people whose
phone numbers I have received from the Polis campaign. I'm
to use them to call and encourage folks to go to the
Democratic Caucus in February. I'm waiting on word from the
precinct captain as to the location of the Caucus.

I had a good talk with Jeanne yesterday. She was making
steamed brown bread. Later e-mail informed me that it came
out beautifully so she's sending me the recipe. I have never
made it although I have bought and steamed it. She was also
making baked beans. Sounded great!

Robert and I are really frustrated with our DISH TV recording
device. The TIVO folks sued the Dish people and won so that
Dish had to rewrite their software. It appears to have
multiple bugs. It erases things; it sets the time for
starting and finishing a a minute before it starts and
three minutes after it finishes. This then causes the
same software to skip some of our settings because
they overlap! It is maddening.

A day with Susan

Yesterday was the big day to meet Susan at Jennifer Caskey's
office for a consultation on her breast cancer. I arrived
at 11:50 AM and Susan and Doris Ann were already there. We
chatted and waited an hour as women came and went. Clearly,
it is a busy practice. When our turn came it was worth the
wait. Dr. Caskey (recommended by Dr. Braun) is very thorough
with explanations. She described the whole route of Ductal
Carcinoma In Situ. Previously, it was assumed the cancer
spread by fanning out from the site so that if all the cells
surrounding the site were removed and there was no sign of
invasion in the lymph nodes, the cancer was contained or
eradicated. with Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2
(HER2+) they have discovered it enters the blood stream and
may show up anywhere in the body. Hence, the chemo therapy
which is to get any stray cancer cells that have already
fanned out, followed by radiation therapy to make sure that
all the cancer cells in the breast are gone. The chemo is
given once every three weeks and repeated six times. After
she completes the chemo she'll do the radiation which takes
less time for each dose, but is administered every day. In
addition tothese two procedures herceptin is taken
simultaneously and then continued until she has been on it
for a year.

Susan has to have a small surgery in breast to insert the
tube which will be used to insert the chemo medication.
She'll do this next Thursday. After that surgery I'll pick
her up at the hospital and take her to Dr. Caskey's office
where she'll get her first infusion of chemo. This first
time will take about 4 hours and since her reaction to the
medication is unknown she has to have someone be there to
take her home. I'll be that someone. In the future she'll
probably be able to transport herself.

The room in which she gets the chemo therapy is tucked away
in the rear of Dr. Caskey's suite. There are about half a
dozen very comfortable chairs in the room and when we peaked
in there were four women there. Three getting treatment and
one visitor as well as Susan. Doris Ann and I retreated to
the waiting room. Later Susan said it was very comfortable
chatting with the other women, reminiscent of women bonding
during pregnancy. That sounded very positive and reassuring.

It was a relief that it isn't as bad as we thought, but it
is bad enough!

A musicale at Louisville Elementary School

Today I did my usual stint at the Carnegie Library scanning old
photographs. These were formal portraits taken in late
1800 and early 1900.

In the evening we went to Louisville Elementary School to
see Ariel perform in the third grade musicale depicting the
best of Colorado. It was quite a performance. The kids had
memorized a dozen, it seemed, songs about the west and
specifically, Colorado. As Robert suggested, quite a brain
washing of the superiority of Colorado and the United
States. All very patriotic, which is OK, I guess.

Martha took the pictures.







The whole third grade class.







Miss Ariel, wired and ready to perform









Ariel and James ready to rock

The Ladies head out on a road trip.

The solar panels are working very well. It is great to have 15
panels all up and running!

Robyn and Janis left on Sunday, heading for Boise to visit
Alan and Patti and then on home Monday. Robyn called Monday
to say they had arrived safely and the trip had gone well.

Alyssum's friend Rosa turned up on Sunday and stayed until
Tuesday morning. We all went up to Big Horn mountain on
Monday. The view of the back range was obscured by clouds.
Actually, it looked like it was snowing there. Rosa's car
was steaming when we got to the road to Big Horn. Robert
had her take it to Vernon after we came home. It turned out
she had a leaky water pump and Vernon said he could fix it
that afternoon.

Later, I was listing things that Alyssum might want for her
train trip in the morning. Rosa commented that it sounded
like a road trip. After much discussion, debate and some
planning the ladies decided they would drive Rosa's car to
California. She wants it there when she gets back from
Hawaii anyway because she hopes to go to nursing school
there. She is still a resident of California.

We scrounged around and outfitted Alyssum with coat, down
vest, scarf and gloves as well as a towel and wash cloth,
food, sleeping bags and good wishes. Yesterday Rosa and
Alyssum left for Salida, Colorado. They'll spend the night
there and Rosa will pack all her stuff, some to leave there
and some to take with them so she'll have it in Hawaii.

We have our fingers crossed that Rosa's car will make it.
Vernon allowed as how it wasn't in great shape and it has
120,000 miles on it. Stay tuned.

Moving the solar panels

This morning, finally, we have a sunny day. Robert has been
waiting all week for the weather to be such that he, Robyn
and Alyssum would be able to move solar panels to the roof
of the study. They are at it as I write this. Because of
where they have to go to move the panels from the hill-side
to the roof, I don't even want to watch. Janis has been
helping move various bits and pieces and now the solar
panels are being moved and she is out photographing the
efforts.

The following pictures were taken by Janis Barton


Preparing panels to be removed from rack and moved to roof








Moving the rack to the roof.














Robyn, having carried panels from hillside to patio, prepares to lift them to roof.










The moving job is almost complete.



















The job is done.

Thanksgiving

I have a bit of catch-up to do here.

On Wednesday we woke up to about a half-inch of snow, the
first of the season. I kept busy making plans for the
arrival on Monday of Robyn and Janis and on Tuesday of
Alyssum. Robyn and Janis are driving and Alyssum is coming
by train.

Book club was held at the schoolhouse Wednesday evening.
Melissa hosted it. Unfortunately, she didn't turn the
heat on until she got there, nor did she bother with the
wood stove. That meant it was pretty uncomfortable.
It takes quite a while to warm that building up. I had
picked up Julie so after we had discussed the book and
the discussion evolved into a diatribe about the public
schools, I suggested we leave and we did.

I did some more house cleaning today. In the evening Robert
went to his Cosmology Book Club at the library. They are
discussing Lisa Randall's book. The comments indicate the
book is disorganized and vague.

On Friday evening Robert went to The Future Salon which was
held at the home of Larry Lackey. David Grinspoon of the
Denver Museum of Nature and Science was the speaker; the
subject was the Fermi Paradox.

I went to the Jared Polis headquarters for a Steering
Committee meeting. We discussed strategies and I
volunteered information about our house party and also
suggested that we focus on getting supporters to the Caucus
in February. I volunteered to call people in my precinct
and adjoining precincts who had previously attended caucuses
to encourage them to go and to vote for Jared.

I picked up Ariel in north Boulder from Martha on Monday and
Tuesday. She kept pretty busy here on Monday and on Tuesday
she and I went swimming, then to Target to pick up some
Barbies and on to the dentist for me to get my teeth
cleaned. Carl picked her up at north Boulder in the
evening on both days.

Monday evening Robyn and Jan showed up in the evening
to spend the holiday week with us. We had the motorhome all
ready for them, we thought. It turned out neither the
furnace nor the oil radiator worked and, of course, we had
the first really cold snap of the season. Robert did get
them working during the day and a good thing, too. The
temperature dropped to 13 overnight.

Alyssum arrived on Tuesday and she is staying in the guest
room. She volunteered to move to the RV since camping out
was something she is used to doing. But, Jan and Robyn said
they were doing fine out there.

On Wednesday we had a session of pie making. I made crusts
and Jan and Robyn put together the fillings for 2 apple, 1
mince and 2 pumpkin pies. Alyssum was going to do the
pumpkin, but Robert spirited her away.



The table is set for Thanksgiving at Carl's and Martha's.












We all went to Thanksgiving dinner at Carl's, taking the
pies, cranberry sauce that Ariel had made, a spinach salad,
and beverages. The conversation was pretty much dominated
by little 2-year-old Beth who is both charming and
precocious. Between Ariel and Beth there was no adult
conversation which was disappointing. The dinner was excellent,
however!



Beth, the precocious one who announced after getting a flu shot that she wasn't
returning there again to be tortured!










On "black" Friday Robyn, Janis and Alyssum went to town to
have tea at the Dushambe Tea house. Unfortunately, the
place was so crowded they couldn't even get in to see the
place and there was no way they could have tea there. They
found a tea place called the Tea Spot further north on 13th
where they could have tea and watch the ice skaters on the
rink that has just recently been set up again for the winter.

They ran a few errands for me and then came on home just
missing the worst of the football traffic from the
CU/Nebraska game which, for once, CU won.

Ariel stays over

Ariel, checking out Grandma's glasses.








I am behind in blogging, I see.

Since I wrote last, Robert and I have walked up the Church
Road a couple of times. We go by the solar hut and up that
path and on up and up to the Church road. We then go up the
road to Sunshine because there is quite a bit going on up
there and we want to see what it is. The house we refer to
as Heath's house (he built it) has been sold to an outfit
from Boca Rotan. They have a dog rescue effort and have
moved their dogs, about 15 of them, to a fenced area around
the house. It is a large area, big enough for quite a few
dogs. Fifteen seems too many, but we'll see how it goes.
The dogs are driving Vernon crazy because he says they bark
a lot at night and the noise wakes him up. We are fortunate
because we can't hear them from here.

Sunday Martha dropped Ariel here around 11 AM. There was no
school on Monday so I had volunteered to take her. They had
plans for the afternoon which is why she came in the
morning. We had a busy two days.

Sunday, the weather was perfect. We spent much of the time
out doors doing odd chores, one of which was to clean up the
patio. She enjoys doing that, or seems to anyway. We also
played some games and played with the modern version of
paper dolls.

Monday, the weather had turned and it was in the 40s. We
made two trips up the road, one to visit Matson to visit the
kitty and see if the kids were there. They weren't.
Another, to go to the schoolhouse and try out the new swings
that Shannah and Charlie installed. They did a great job
and the swings are high enough so that Ariel's long legs
aren't too long. Again, in the afternoon we played games
and she played some on the computer.

Carl and Martha arrived about 5:30 PM all enthused because
they had just bought a dining room table, ten chairs and a
hutch. They'll now be able to seat everyone for
Thanksgiving!

A Catch-up Day

Yesterday I spent most of the day at Lutheran Medical
Center in Denver. Susan Wayland was having breast
cancer surgery and I was there for support and to
drive her home. Her friend, Connie, had taken her
to the hospital in the early morning. I didn't
get there until 9 AM. Everything went smoothly
and the lymph nodes are not affected so it looks
good for a complete cure.

Kirsten, Susan's daughter, was waiting for us at
Susan's house when we got there. I had called
her earlier to report. Kirsten doesn't drive
or she would have been there for her mom, I'm
sure. As it was she spent the rest of the
day with Susan thinking up ways to make things
easier for Susan. I talked with Susan this
morning and she is doing fine.

Today was a catch-up day. I had gotten my flu
shot yesterday while Susan and I were waiting
for her antibiotic prescription to be filled.
Flu shots a couple of years ago were $8.00,
then $10.00, then $20.00 and now $28.00. I
had checked with our insurance and they'll
pay for it. I have sent in the forms today.
I talked at some length with Connie. She
was home nursing Meara who had had oral
surgery to repair a gum tissue that had been
torn sometime back when one of her baby teeth
had to be extracted. Now she needs orthodontic
work and they are afraid that her gum tissue
isn't strong enough, hence the surgery.

Jared Polis' campaign manager called earlier
to see if I would attend a brain-storming
session on the 16th. That sounds like fun.
Dinner will be served and after that the
meeting. Robert and I had planned to go
to a conversation at Boulder Book Store
on "The Fermi Paradox." Robert will
go to that and I'll go to the political party.

I find there are so many issues that need
to be attended that it is hard to know where
to start. With limited energy I have
decided that working for Jared is probably
the best I can do. The ACLU has a documentary
they are trying to get people to see and
asking for folks to have a house party and
show the film. I'm going to check with
Allison and see if they would donate the
use of their projector so we could have
a showing of the film at the schoolhouse.

Dr. Ho reports

I have talked to Dr. Ho this morning and the
diagnosis is that I have a superficial basal
cell carcinoma. We decided that he would scrape
the area more thoroughly. He already took a big
chunk out of my leg. In addition to the scraping
I would apply a special cream to it for the next
few weeks. My appointment is November 27th.

Today is a gorgeous day and a good one to be
outside, after it warms up a little.

After lunch Robert and I walked up to the
Church Road via the Hut. We are trying to
make a new path. Robert used his small axe
to chop off dead limbs. On our way back down the
Church Road we took down the sign that said "Private
No Motor Veh." Since it isn't private; it's an
unmaintained County road and we want to keep it
that way. We drive the truck up there to get wood.

Pete was working at the Church. The new foundation
is coming along. The Inspectors are supposed to
come tomorrow to check it out.

Regular 4-month VA visit

Today was our every 4 months visit to the VA. The last time
we went, I didn't go, because I was in Rochester because of
Jeanne's death.

Robert checked out pretty well with everything. His white
count is up to 112,000, but it goes up so slowly that Dr.
Braun pointed out that young doctors get really alarmed
about that, but he has seen Robert-like patients that just
go on and on and the red count doesn't drop, as expected.
And likewise, Robert probably has prostate cancer, but it is
so slow-growing that something else is likely to be the
killer, neither the CLL nor the prostate cancer.

We had lunch at the museum, as usual. The place was mobbed
with school children to see the Titanic Exhibit for which we
did not have tickets. We didn't have time, either.

We returned in time for our 1 o'clock appointment and waited
until after 2 PM Dr. Braun was clearly upset; he made a
call and described a patient whom he expected to bleed to
death over night and later explained to us that race had
been an issue and that the patient's family and he had
lost trust and he didn't blame them. Other than that we
don't know, but it all sounded very tragic.

On our way home we stopped at Namaste and picked up a
temporary "mate" because ours had been declared faulty,
which Robert had decided long since. It is the vehicle that
communicates between the solar electronics and the computer.
They gave us a loaner and are ordering us a new one.

We then went to Orik and bought some bags for the vacuum
Robert uses to clean out soot from the furnace. We also
went to Barnes and Noble to get Tom Brokaw's latest book
about the 1960s, "Boom." The clerk asked if I wanted to
renew my membership and I said yes without checking the
price. It had been $15.00 last year. When she said I owed
$36.00 I questioned her and found the "membership" price was
$25.00 and the book was 10.00. I cancelled the membership
and took the book. The membership and coupons do add up,
but somehow the $25.00 really stunned me.

When we got home I had a message from Dr. Ho. The biopsy
was back from my skin caner and I have to come back to
discuss further treatment. I know, or hope, I'm wrong, but I
don't think it is basil cell because of where it is. I'll
call in the morning to make an appointment. I really fear
it is melanoma.

The good news is that I received my Amazon order for three more of the Diane Gabaldon series books, real bodice rippers which are great escapist literature.

A quiet week

It's been almost a week since I have entered anything here.
Not much has been happening, I guess. I did have lunch with
Susan Wayland and we always have a good time with much
chatter and laughter.

On Friday Robert and I met the "Chervin Birthday Club." We
meet approximately once a month to celebrate any one's
birthday, if anyone has had a birthday since the last
luncheon. We went to Jill's at the st. Julien which was a
pleasant change from the Tsing Tao where we usually go.

Ruth and Buck were there and Ruth had just come from having
electroshock therapy. She was very talkative so I assume
they had given her something to make the experience less
painful. She suffers from depression and that must really
be awful. It was good to see her chatty and kind of up.
Sarah and Dennis, Suzanne, and Chervin completed the group.

Susan Solomon came in with a group while we were eating.
She and a bunch of others have received the Nobel Prize
for their work on Global Warming. I spoke with her
briefly. She was a postdoc back when I was at NCAR.

After lunch Robert went home and I went to Aspen Eye wear to
get my new eye glasses adjusted and then on to Louisville to
have my annual skin-check with Dr. Ho. He gave me some
salve for the sores on my left leg that haven't healed up
since I fell in the creek in September. He also spotted a
possible Basil cell cancer on the back of the same leg. That
seems an unlikely place for a skin cancer since it is almost
always covered up. I suppose there were times when I wore
shorts a lot and other times when I sun bathed. I'll hear
the results of the biopsy sometime next week. He took quite
a chunk out of my leg.

We had a call from Alyssum. She's coming on the train and is
schedule to arrive in Denver on the 20th at 8 PM. That's the
same schedule that Connie and family came in on. She'll
either take a bus to Boulder or we or Robyn will pick her up.
I don't think we should make her take the bus after coming all
that way on the train.

Robert continues to juggle the solar input trying to maximize
our use of it. He's also designing another rack for the last
of the panels to be mounted. He's hoping that while Alyssum,
Robyn and Janis are here he'll be able to get enough help to
move one of the racks to the roof of his study. It'll get
more sun there.

Connie's birthday today

Yesterday I talked with Connie at some length. Today is her
birthday. Greg had a meeting in Colorado Springs so wasn't
home for her birthday.

Meara had gone to a Home Coming Dance the night before and it
sounded like something out of the middle ages. The dance
was held in the gym and the lights were on full during the
whole dance. No sexy dancing allowed, only ballroom type
dancing and then bodies were not allowed to touch, only
hands and arms. I don't know whether a ruler was used to
ensure the proper distance. Oh, yes and the Principal was
afraid someone might spike the punch so only water was
served! Needless to say Meara was less than thrilled with
her first Home Coming Dance.

Yesterday was also "Trick or Treat" night in Salina only it
was not night only late afternoon. In the past we've had
the 14 local kids plus a couple of extras and I have had
presents for all of them. This year I got the list and
there were 25 and then I got an e-mail adding 4 more. I
decided that was not going to work. I had cards for 30, but
I didn't feel I wanted to give money to all the kids in the
area including Gold Hill, Melvina and Wall Street. I raided
Robert's candy stash and then rubber banded cards to Hershey
bars for the locals and have only Hershey bars to the
rest. From mutterings I heard from the local kids it seemed
they were not thrilled to have all the extras either. They
were also happy to see they got their cards and money as
well as candy and then didn't begrudge the extra kids their
candy either. I hope next year it ramps back a little. Of
course Matson who bought Rick Lewis house has 5 kids..so
that alone added a bit.

Today is a gorgeous day, warm and sunny. Marti and I walked
up to the schoolhouse, stopping to examine the work on the
church.

This evening we go to Viki's to celebrate Robert's birthday.
We were going yesterday until I realized it was the day the
kids were coming. Robert is now 82.

House party for Jared Polis

The party for Jared Polis on Wednesday, the 24th went very
well. We had 27 people there, including Jared and his
assistant, Sam Lopez. Jared spoke well and had a lively
question and answer session after he spoke. I was pleased
that I could fully support his position on all of the issues
and to see him answer questions directly and forthrightly
even when it was clear that the person asking might not
agree with his position. He never wavered. For more
information please follow this link:

http://www.polisforcongress.com/
Jared Polis for Congress


Carl and Martha did yeoman duty in the kitchen including a
lot of clean up before they left. I did more clean up
yesterday and then went to the Carnegie Library to do my
stint at scanning photographs. I am working on old glass
plate negatives and it is really difficult to see the
picture until it is scanned. Marti decided that she would
scan them. It is a VERY slow process, but she has work she
can do on the computer while the scanner is doing it's
thing. I then use Photoshop to clean up the pictures and add
the watermarks and move them to the virtual library. It is
much faster for me, certainly and more interesting than
sitting waiting for the scanner.

Robert met me at 3 PM and we went together to NCAR to Dick
Valent's retirement party. It was fun. I saw a lot of
people I hadn't seen in years and was happy to realize that
Ann Cowley, as I was known at NCAR, is still remembered.
And a couple of speakers in reciting the history of the
Computing Project, of which Dick has been the leader the
last few years, my name was mentioned as the one who
initiated the project so many, many years ago. It must have
been about 1974 when I wrote the proposal to my boss.

Yesterday, e-mail from Amanda with some catch-up including
a picture of their new
boat (ship?, yacht?).
It is in Portugal and
as she said, that presents
a slight problem of getting
it to Seattle. See attached
photo. But, they are doing well.
She also sent a picture of
Alyssum in front of her cabin









and a picture of Carrie at her graduation last June at which time she
received a Masters degree
in Mathematics. Yea, Carrie.

The first snow

So, the house is clean. I should plan a party
every fall. That way I have the drive to really clean the
house before it gets too cold to do the bed room and the
guest room. I have also washed all the glasses. We have a
dozen "water" glasses and another dozen "wine glasses" and a
another dozen "juice" glasses." All are now clean and ready
to be juice, water or wine glasses.

Matson called this morning to ask to "borrow" enough wood to
get through the day. The house is cold and the wood he had
ordered wasn't coming until later in the week. I told him
Robert was in the barn and he'd have to ask him. He
couldn't leave the kids, nor would he, I gather, bring the
kids down to ask Robert. How would he get the wood, if he
wouldn't leave the kids by themselves. Were we supposed to
cart the wood up to him? Anyway, he apparently found
someone to give him some wood because when I called back and
said he could borrow the wagon (again) and take a load of
wood to his house he didn't answer the phone. I am
wondering how he and the kids will get through the winter.
He is so unorganized and so unknowing as to how to do
things. He should never have bought a house up here.

We went to a blue grass concert at the schoolhouse last
night. It was mediocre. The lead player had written all
the songs and was really into himself. He one-by-one at
various times introduced the other players, except he forgot
one of them. The music was all the same. It was as if they
played the same music over and over, but with a variation on
the words.

It snowed today and was cold, but not yet freezing. We had
hoped for more snow.

Tomorrow I go to Dr. Roberts to have my eyes check and to
schedule my next cataract surgery.

Lunch with the Ochs

Another beautiful day in Colorado. A little chilly and
cloudy in the morning, but it turned out to be pretty nice.

Robert and I went to town to have lunch at Dolan's with
Gerard and Alice. I had a couple of -$8.00 off lunches. As
usual we had a good time. Much conversation; Robert and
Gerard discussing solar issues. They are having battery
problems. Alice and I discussed people and the problems
with the county, open space, taxes and grown children.

After lunch both couples were headed for McGuckens, but
we didn't see them there. We picked up a couple of plumbing
pieces for the well and came on home.

I'm still pondering what to serve at the political pow wow
next week. I vacillate between beans and brots or cold meat
and cheese trays and chips. Right now I'm leaning towards
the cold trays. We received the "official" invitation to
Ann and Robert Lawrence's home today...and it is from 6-
7:30 so I think a very light supper is better than the beans
and brots. I've ordered a sheet cake already. Robert's
influence, gotta have dessert.

West Merrill came to visit

So.. it took two days, but the new freezer did arrive.
The first day, Friday the 12th the Lowes truck went
zooming by up and then down. There was no stopping
them. After several calls to the store I thought I
had gotten the directions to our house clear enough
for any one to follow. Saturday, again the Lowes
truck went zooming by, but at least this time a
motorhome size truck instead of an 18 wheeler size. Seeing
it go by, I went out and stood in the street wondering
how long I would have to wait before it came zooming
back. Not long. I waved it down. The driver said, "
Where is your house." and I waved. He started on
down the road. I yelled and TG he stopped and I
said, "you have to park here.

Finally, the new freezer is in the cold room
with a minimum of problems. We knew the door to
the cold room would have to come off, but that
was easy.

Gradually, I'll fill it from the old freezer a
few trips a day.

Shannah came today to leave the book club book.
She has a doll of a little boy, about a month old.
I have her a small gift for West (her baby) and
two artichokes that came in my organic box. Neither
Robert nor I care to bother with artichokes.

Today I sent an e-mail to the President of thee
Boulder Humanists to say that I was too involved
in the 2008 election to both the humanist board
activities and my election activities. I'm sure
Gordon will not be happy because I have put lots
of energy into the big events he has had. But
I really am tired of fighting about God. I don't
care that much. I don't believe in God, but I
think it would be comforting to believe. I do
like the Humanist philosophy, but am glad to take
a time out.

Freezer delivered

For the second day in the row Lowes has called to tell us they were
delivering our freezer. Again, they didn't show and I called. I also
made them read to me the delivering instructions and for the second
day in a row they were wrong. I gave them the corrections and
suggested they call to make sure the driver had the correct
instructions. The delivery scheduled for 8-9, arrived around 10
and only then because we saw them go by and waited outside
until they came back down and flagged them down.

The two were friendly, but not very bright. It's amazing we got
the delivery at all, but we did.

After we had the freezer on for awhile it had gone down to -12. I
have clicked it down to 2 and now it hovers beteen 0 and -1.

That's about it for today.

Water problem solved

The water problem turned out to be a leak in Russell's
garden water-system. I didn't know he used our well
water to water his garden?! Anyway 500 gallons of water
went into his garden yesterday. Robert turned off his
water last night to make sure it was his, not ours
that was the cause of the missing water.

I was supposed to have my chest freezer delivered today
between 11 and 2. They even called at 6:50 AM to make
sure we were going to be home. Since we'd been up
until 1:30 AM this morning we were sound asleep when
the call came. I saw the truck roar past here at
1:30 PM and Robert saw it roar down the road at
2:00 PM. They had gotten the instructions mixed up,
as is usual. I have since talked with the driver and
he seems to know where we are. He'll come tomorrow
morning in a smaller truck.

Coffee with Jo

Yesterday evening was book club night at Alisson's. But, I
was the only one who came. We discussed the book for a
while. We both liked it. The book is "Thirteen Moons" by
Charles Frazier.

This morning I went to town to have coffee with Jo at 9 AM.
We went to Saxy Cafe instead of the Bookends. It was less
busy and quieter. We talked for 2 hours about all sorts of
things. It was fun. We walked back to her place with a
brief stop at the book store. I wanted to get the next book
club selection, but they were all out. I'll get it from
Amazon.

After I left Jo, I went to the Post Office to mail some
audio books to Elske, dropped some stuff at GoodWill and
went on to Kings and the Liquor store. I picked up a
sandwich as well as groceries at Kings.

Finally, went to Carnegie arriving at 12:45 PM. I had my
lunch and talked with Marti then she showed me the ropes
with regard to scanning glass plate slides. I didn't scan
very many because they all needed work with Photoshop.
There were a couple of really nice ones of Salina.

I got home about 4 PM, and did some dinner preparations.
Bob Gray and Robert were cutting down a tree that has been
shading the solar panels. They came in about 5:30 so I
finished putting dinner together and we sat down to eat at
6 PM. I served spaghetti, hard rolls and salad. Bob
brought his famous cake which we had for dessert.

After supper he showed us his canoe trip route in the
Boundary Waters of Minnesota as well as some pictures of the
trip, too. It was a hard trip because the route was longer
than their allotted time and it rained three out of the four
days. I would gather Mary was pretty miserable much of the
time and it has put a strain on their relationship.

I just now went to clean up the kitchen while Bob and Robert
are doing something on the computer and I discovered we have
no water pressure. Robert said that the pressure pump had
been cycling too often this afternoon. He had noticed that
from the graph of electrical use. We apparently have a
leak somewhere. Great!

A bit weary today

Robert and I were both tired today. Neither one of admitted
it until at lunch, I commented that I just didn't seem to
have any energy. He nodded. I had changed the bed, taken
off the heated mattress pad and put on the electric blanket.
The nights are cool enough so some heat is needed and more
than a warm mattress pad. In addition I had done a few other
things including carrying a couple of buckets of water up to
water the papyrus which we had brought in for the winter.
But not much else. Robert admitted he hadn't accomplished
much either.

We decided to go to Lowes to look at freezers. I had pretty
much made up my mind what size and what model I wanted. It
turned out that $65.00 was the cost of delivery for a
freezer that about $250.00. I looked at Robert and asked if
he thought we could really manage it ourselves. We had come
in the truck so we could take it home. He didn't answer,
but said that he wasn't sure it would fit through the door.
We decided to wait. We bought some of the new energy
efficient florescent light bulbs and he bought a chain saw
on a pole which he had been wanting and we came home. On
the way home he suggested that I just call and order the
freezer and have it delivered, assuming it would fit through
the door, that "frankly, I don't feel up to dealing with
it." He'll probably forget he said that, but I plan to do
just that. I may go to Lowes and arranged for delivery, but
am relieved we don't have to try and do it ourselves.

I shall have coffee with Jo on Thursday.

Fred Clare called as did Betty Valent. Fred, Betty and Dick
will all be coming to my house party.

Salt, salt and more salt!

The weekend, as noted was spent cleaning the cold room. I
finished this morning with a sweep-out and mop-up of the
room.

Robert and I had decided to give up on the water softener.
Because of our water shortage it is not practical to have
something that takes more than 80 gallons to soften the
water for a week or ten days. After lunch we started to
dismantle it. The first step was to get the salt out of the
salt tank. What a mess that turned out to be. It was about
three quarters full. That's a lot of salt. We started
scooping it and dumping the buckets into the wheelbarrow.
It didn't take long to realize this was not practical. We'd
have to scoop it all over again to get it into containers to
get ride of it. I save my bird seed bags and had lots of
them. We started filling them. After about 5 bags, of the
dry stuff we came to the wet stuff. We drained this through
a colander into a bag in a bucket. Finally, we got to the
point where we could tip the tank over at an angle so Robert
could shovel it out. He shoveled and I drained and filled
bags and carried them out to the wagon. It took us all
afternoon! But, the job is done. We have 10 sacks of salt.
I would guess about 200 pounds of the stuff. We have rinsed
the buckets and the wagon and the tank has water in it,
hopefully to dissolve the remaining salt in the tank. Pete
Brady has said he'd take the salt. Right now the bags are
in the barnyard, each with a small hole punched in the
bottom so the water can leak out. I have also cleaned the
living room floor which had salt water dripped on it, mopped
the kitchen floor and the cold room. I note that the
kitchen still looks salty so I guess I'll have to do a
better job of it, but not today.

This morning I received a call from Sam Lopez who is working
for Jared Polis. Jared is running for the US Congress from
the 2nd district of Colorado, our district. I had offered
to do a pan cake breakfast or an ice cream social. In the
meantime the church is being restored and the schoolhouse is
set up like a Church. Giving a party there would not be a
good idea. But, Sam seemed to think that a house party
would be better anyway and that he would be surprised if we
got as many as 15 people. I have agreed to do that. Sounds
much simpler than what I had planned. I'll invite as many
as I think I can handle or more and he'll invite all the
caucus attendees for the mountain precincts. I think it'll
be fun. Jared has really stiff competition because a member of
the Colorado house, a Democrat, is vying for the nomination,
too.

I had good conversations with Connie and Jeanne over the
weekend and with Margo, too.

Jeanne ran the Tri-Cities Marathon on Sunday. It was hot, but
fortunately not as hot as in Chicago where the Chicago
Marathon had to been stopped after two hours and one death.
Anyway, at about mile 22, Jeanne noticed that a young man was
sitting on the grass and shaking as though he had cerebral
palsy. She quickly realized that he was in trouble so stopped
to help. She managed to get him to focus on her and to breath
and to take some salt and carbohydrate gel that she had with
her and gradually he came back and was on the mend when the
ambulance finally arrived 20 minutes after being called.
Jeanne went on to finish the race! And here she is. Photo thanks
to her cousin Ford
Denison,
published
here without
permission.

The Elderhostel part of the trip

So, finally, the Elderhostel trip.

Monday, September 24, 2007

We met the whole group at the Sea Crest Oceanfront
Resort in North Falmouth. There were about
40 of us and a rather interesting mix of people.

Our first meal together Robert and I sat at a table and
were promptly joined by four others: One couple was from
Michigan, the other from Illinois, I think. A single
woman also joined us. Before the first course was delivered
the single lady, Dorothy, let fly with the pronouncement
that discussion of children and/or grandchildren was off
limits. She didn't have any children and she didn't care to
here about any ones children. She went on to say that she
had arrived at the Sea Crest the day before and that the
food was lousy. I asked a question of one of the other
guests and we started talking about trips we had taken. I
mentioned Kentucky and the Mumfordsville Civil War site. It
turned out that Terry (from Michigan) had written a book
about that area and time during the civil war. The
conversation was joined by Robert and the other two.
Terry's wife is a very quiet lady. She hardly spoke two
words the whole trip although I did get to like her and
know her a little. Anyway, Dorothy suddenly spoke up
and announced the food here is terrible. I responded
with, " You told us that once already and that was once
too many times." Not cool, but she kept butting in and
I was running out of patience. Anyway, she announced
that I was the rudest person she had ever met and went on
at some length at how despicable I was. The whole group
looked at her, sort of slack jawed. She had already
managed to insult Terry and the woman from Illinois.

As soon as supper was over the six of us fled from the
room. We were to have a lecture after supper, but we
didn't want to be anywhere near Dorothy. We all came
back in a few minutes and sat down at the only
empty table in the room. Dorothy was just as we had
left her. Needless to say, our departure from the
room and rejoining at another table was noticed by
EVERYBODY.

The lecture was brief, basically a chance for everyone
to introduce him/herself and get the new itinerary for
the trip.

I ran into the tour guide (Linda) in the ladies room
after the lecture and she asked me what had happened.
I gave her my version and said that I certainly wanted
as little to do with Dorothy as possible, but I also
thought she might have had too much to drink before
dinner because she occasionally slurred her words and
because she was so aggressive.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

We managed to hold a spot at our breakfast table so that
Patricia and Thomas could join us. After breakfast we had a
lecture by Jim Coogan, Cape Cod Historian. The lecture was
on Cape Cod it's history and something of it's geology. One
point he made which we enjoyed. He described how one does/
does not get a house painted on the Cape. You select a painter
and he arrives promptly and puts up his ladder. He then goes
away to work on the current house he is painting. He may have
as many as 13 ladders; this secures the job from anyone else
taking it. You need to know what number your ladder has?! It
was interesting and we heard somethings I had not been aware
of before including a description of how the tidal flats,
like at Jo's place in Wellsfleet had come about.

After the lecture we boarded the CCRR for a journey up
the cape by rail. We were served a box lunch, on board.
The first of many. The scenes were interesting, but I
had a hard time figuring out where we were. The description
over the intercom didn't jibe with what I had seen from the
car.

After our train ride we drove (in the bus) two the Cape Cod
National Sea shore. Robert and I walked down to the beach,
but Patricia and Thomas didn't want to walk that far. We
didn't have the right shoes for beach walking and each had
only the one pair of shoes. We walked a little way and then
sat on a log and just enjoyed looking at the ocean. (I did
have Tevas, back in the car left at the hotel.) The Sea
Shore was an unexpected detour. It replaced "shopping" in
Hyannis in which none of the group showed any interest.
Linda commented that on Elderhostel tours no one ever wants
to go shopping, quite different from most of the tours she
leads.

Dinner was in N. Falmouth at the Irish Village, an Irish
pub. The food was not sensational, but very ample!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

We checked out of the hotel after breakfast and boarded our
bus. The bus driver is Peter, a very congenial guy and the
bus is brand new and quite luxurious. We departed for
New Hampshire.

We boarded the Winnipesaukee Railroad in Meredith, NH. We
sat with Patricia and Thomas. Actually, most of the rest
of the trip at meals and on the trains we sat with them so
that we'd have a chance to talk and catch up with their
lives. Several times they came over to our room after
dinner. We had another box lunch on the train and had
narration by a train person while on the train. After
the ride we had a talk by Paul Giblin of the Flying
Yankee at the Hobo Railroad. The Hobo railroad is an
organization put together to restore the Flying Yankee
train. This is one of the early streamlines. It's
bright and shiny and about half restored.

Later we checked into our second hotel, Inn Seasons Resort
in New Hampshire. So far the hotels have been very nice.
We had dinner later at an easily forgotten restaurant.
Someone opined that you shouldn't go on an Elderhostel
tour for the food. None of it was really bad, but none
of it was exceptionally good, either.

After dinner we had a lecture by Ben English about the
Conway-Scenic Rail trip we would be taking. It was
very late because we had fallen behind on our schedule,
but about half of us went and we talked Patricia and
Thomas into staying up for it. Ben did a fabulous
job of describing the history of the Conway line and
of the scenes we'd be seeing from the train. He
made the era of the original railroad come alive.

After the lecture Patricia and Thomas came to our room
for more conversation.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

We departed for the Conway Scenic Notch Train after
breakfast. The ride was fun, and Ben narrated along
the way which made it even more interesting. This
was the best part of the trip for me, so far.

We departed the train at Crawford Notch and drove
to the Cog Railway station where we had time to
visit the museum and had a talk about the origins
of the Cog railway. The railway was built by
a wealthy man who thought it should be possible.
The local officials thought he was crazy, but
they told him to go for it if he wanted to. He
did and it is still running today.

Going up was not pleasant. It was so jerky that
it looked like the train was full of bobble-head
dolls. It looked funny, but after awhile it was
painful. I took my jacket and crammed it behind
my head to try and keep it from bobbing quite so
much. But, I couldn't help but laugh at all of
us and our bobble-heads.

It was not a good day to be on top of Mount
Washington. It was cold, wet, very windy and
we were in dense fog. You couldn't see 20 feet
ahead of you so we had no view from the top nor
from part of the train ride. None of us was
eager to return to the train, but fortunately
going down is much smoother than going up.

Friday, September 28, 2007

This morning we checked out of our hotel after
breakfast and headed for Essex, CT. Picnic
lunch was served at the station of the Essex
Steam Train. We had a short lecture at
the station about the train. It is basically
a tourist train and the group that runs it
also bought a boat to travel on the Connecticut
River.

We boarded the train at Essex and got off at
Norwich, CT where we boarded the boat. We
had been told it was a river boat and it was,
but we had assumed it to be a paddle wheel which
it wasn't.

We checked into our motel in Norwich, CT and
then departed for dinner at Modesto's Restaurant.
Linda went in to make sure they were ready for us
and came out giggling. She said she thought she
had the wrong day because the banquet room looked
like it was set up for a wedding, which it was.
Everything was white and gold, with flowers and
candles, but all a bit shabby. The food however
was pretty good.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

This morning was our last hurrah. We had breakfast
and checked out of our hotel and boarded the bus.
We made a stop in Mystic so one of our group could
pick up his car. Elderhostel had been pretty
vague about where the trip was to end and therefore
what to do about our car had been a question, but I
had called and cleared that up sometime after we
left Colorado. From Mystic we went to the SeaCrest
in N. Falmouth on the cape. We said good by to
Patricia there. The bus was taking them to Logan
airport so that we didn't have to do that. We picked
up our box lunch and our car and headed out.

We headed to Newport to see the "cottages." Newport
has become quite a tourist mecca. The downtown was
mobbed. Many of the "cottages" were for sale and
some had tours. I suppose there may be a few people
still living in them. In any case it was an interesting
side trip. We also found out that motels are very expensive
anywhere near Newport. As we headed further, it became
obvious we were not going to find a reasonable
place to stay and we were within a couple of hours of
Joy's and Walt's home. I called Joy. There was no
room in their house because their guest room was
occupied. But, I had already located a motel a few
miles from their house. We booked a room there
and arranged to meet Joy and Walt for brunch the
next morning.

And so the end of the Elderhostel part of our trip.