Travels with J

We visited R.I. this weekend for a niece's wedding and had a great time. Ameranth drove separately with Anna, since on her way home she stopped in MA. and picked up Mabel, Ms. M's and Mr. C's beagle. They left Sunday evening for a vacation in Romania and Moldova, which is where she served in the Peace Corps 10 years ago.

So, yes, we have 4 crazy dogs for the next 10 days- what fun! But that's another post for another day. (When I can write it without having Mabel's parents freak about my harsh language- because I'm sure it will go more smoothly as the week progresses- If you guys are reading this- don't worry, she's fine, just......insistent).

Back to our traveling. J was driving so that meant I was the stewardess, since I could access the cooler and snack bag. Because, goodness gracious, you can't travel 4 hours in a car and not eat!

J: Would you open the potato chips, please?
Me: Okay, just a minute. (trying to be vewwy vewwy quiet with the bag so the dogs don't know he's eating)
J: And get a bottle of water?
Me: Sure (Twisting behind the seat to open the cooler that is propping up the folding kennel which keeps Boomer from hijacking the car)
J: Do you have the Swedish Fish right there? (A treat we buy for road trips)
Me: Yes! Which do you want????
J: I thought I'd have both- fish and chips!  Ha!

So the next day Ameranth was with us as we ran some errands and headed back to my folks' house, down a narrow road lined with stone walls and trees (much, much too close to the road, I might mention. I've noticed older roads in MA and R.I. often have no shoulders and have huge old trees within six inches of the pavement. Maine roads have shoulders that are filled in and graded each year, plus shallow ditches to push the snow off into, before you get close to any kind of shrubbery).

As we drove by a horse farm, Ameranth remarked at how large and pretty the field was that ran from the road down to the farmhouse.
J: It used to be bigger.
Me: No, it didn't. 
J: Yes, it was-it was sold.
Me: No, that's still a farm- The field is the same size.
J: Some of it was sold- it's smaller.
Me: J, the field is the same friggin' size!
J: No, it's not.
Me: It runs from the same stone wall at the road down to the same old house! How can it possibly be smaller?
J:

I think at this point Ameranth tried to leave the car, but the Boomer barrier prevented her from reaching the door locks. 

Dutch Island trip

As threatened promised, here's what we did Sunday. For many years J's family has made a day trip to Dutch Island but this was the first time for Ameranth and me. One of his brothers lives in FL and brings his boat up every year when they come to visit, usually around the Fourth. The island trip is often done during the week, and we are not around. Last year J went out, but I didn't, probably because we had the two devil dogs with us.

As I said, J's family grew up with a boat and had visited the different small islands in the area many times, so he was excited about getting the chance to revisit one. There are ruins of Fort Greble near the center of the island so he, his sister Trish and a couple of nephews hiked in. The nephews went back after J and Trish assured them they would be fine returning by themselves.

No surprise, they got lost. I think I may have mentioned J is directionally challenged, and I've been told the sun was overhead and of no use for navigation. Ha. They milled about for a bit, then headed downhill towards the shore, any shore, coming out quite a bit away from the camp. Staying by the water, they circled back, and the nephews eventually found them, guiding them back to civilization and a beer.

J told me the island was around 4 miles long- after I saw it, I checked Google- just under one mile long, honey. Around 100 acres. But it is lovely, and the family had staked a claim to a little cove just behind the lighthouse at the southern tip.

We drove down to a beach just across from this end, and waited for a pickup, after meeting two nieces, a nephew-to-be and their dog, Henry. It was fun going down there because we lived on that road before moving to Maine, and Ameranth remembered walking down to swimming lessons. Although she was just 6 when we moved, I'm not surprised she remembered the walk- it was at least 1/2 mile, (I'm being conservative, since I mocked J, but I think it was closer to a mile) and uphill both ways. No, really, the road goes up a long slope, then down steeply to the shore.  Sectaurs would be in an old-fashioned heavy stroller, and I seriously worried about losing control and tumbling down that last bit.

That's the bridge to Jamestown, a much bigger island, in the background. This beach is where the URI Bay Campus is located and this is their dock:

 There is a little beach to the north which has a sandy bottom, and that is where the kids had their lessons. So they weren't dealing with a slippery rocky bottom, just cold salt water, tides and waves. (When they started lessons at the lake in Maine, they wanted to know when the tide changed) J insists that the water in Groton, CT where he learned to swim is much colder than the water in the bay here. 

Anyway, after a looong wait in the broiling sun, our transportation showed up and we all got on board without much fuss, even Anna and me. A zippy ride over and we disembarked just as well.

We could only stay a little while, since we were double-booked and had to get to my side of the family for a relaxing end to the day.  I don't know what kind of boat the FL brother-in-law has- it's not huge- but the RI b-i-l has a Boston Whaler and man, that ride is a lot bumpier! I'm not sure why Boston Whaler drivers seem to feel that they have to speed directly across any waves or chop, but we got back to shore extremely quickly and didn't bounce overboard as we feared.

All in all, it was a very nice weekend, beautiful weather and the extreme heat wasn't so bad with a shore breeze.

We're home again, and so is Ameranth

It was a very nice weekend in R.I.. It didn't rain too much, and we didn't have to be outside when it did. (Apparently home got a lot of rain Saturday, with a tornado touching down about 30 miles to the west of us) The baby shower for a niece was fun- we didn't have to play a single game, just eat and watch her open gifts.

My nephew is in the Army, and they know it is a boy, so there were camo sleepers and Boston Red Sox onesies that were really cute. Plenty of size ranges too so they shouldn't need to get much more than diapers when he shows up next fall.

This photo is blurry but I wanted to show a family trait. This sister-in-law gave me this not-so-candid shot, and then I went around the corner to get a picture of the grandmother in waiting. See if you can pick out her sister in the next photo.

Re is the one above, and the past 12 months have been quite a trip for her. She was diagnosed with breast cancer, and successfully treated for that, her son got married and is now expecting a baby, plus he got a 6 year old son as a bonus with the marriage.  Definitely started off low and improved as time passed!

I'll end with a picture of J and Ms. M taken at the house where he grew up. A 3rd sister lives there now, and it is still a family gathering place.

Oh, yes. Ameranth got a ride from a nice woman who was going to Boston from Rochester Sunday evening. She was nice enough to drop Ameranth off at Ms M's house at 1:30 AM, and we swung by and got her on our way home.

I've done what I could

Whew!  Busy week that flew by.  Ameranth came home bearing gifts on Sunday (not really gifts, more like boxes of crap belongings that we are once again storing for her) and we shopped busily for two days. Wednesday we drove down to RI so she could visit her grandparents for "what might be the last time". What? When did my mother get so melodramatic? I'm not sure if she thinks she might not be around or if Ameranth will get lost somewhere in the desert. (She was really joking, folks. I think)

We were able to check out the aftermath of the flooding from the record rainfall two weeks ago.  Here's a picture of my parent's basement, everything except the Cliquot box and the rocker are now in a dumpster out back.

And the water flowing out the walkout basement door.

My father's getting the hang of digital photography, resizing and such. They were lucky to 'only' have 2 or 3 inches- my sister lives next door (just to the left in the picture above) and she had 26 inches in her basement! She still has a pond out back, which of course seeps back into her cellar as she pumps the water out. 

Anyway, my mother had drawers full of material, which she was going to throw out. Of course, I had to rescue it, so I ended up bringing more crap bags of goodies home. As long as they had the dumpster there, Ma decided to go through other closets and I now possess a box of assorted wrapping paper, bows and labels, some antique tin boxes filled with buttons, and games that were in the cabinet that I had originally planned on taking. J doesn't know yet that I didn't have room for the antique Bissell carpet sweeper. Maybe next trip, dear.

Friday I dropped Ameranth in Maynard MA and Sectaurs and his ladyfriend are driving her to Albany today to start her hike. It's snowing today in Maine, I hope the storm has ended in NY already.  Today's walk is just 5 miles (ha, 'just') and she does have a place to stay tonight. Anna is not happy about wearing her pack, in fact, whenever it was picked up she tucked her ears back and ran to hide. Poor dog, you're in for a shock.

                                  Relaxing at Grandma's house.

We spent this morning unloading the crap stuff Ameranth hadn't been able to fit in her car and finding room to store all of the boxes. Just undid all of the clearing out we've done lately. I do get to use her printer/scanner which will make life easier. The one we have networked through J's computer doesn't always like me and usually gets hung up on last page of a printing job. Plus, to scan photos I had to walk over, place the picture, use J's computer to scan and save, then transfer it to mine. A pain in the neck.

So, now we wait to get updates, hopefully daily and pretend that she is not out hiking 225+ miles across NY.  Good luck. We love you and hope you have a great time. 

***Just in- update from Sectaurs with picture of the departure.

Out from under the weather

Sooo, last week lasted about a month, and not in a good way. The funeral, coming home, getting ready for Thanksgiving (which was a high point, by the way) then dealing with a nasty GI disturbance. I am finally feeling better, and trying to adjust to working full time, for the rest of the month. I know, I know, most people work at least one full time job, or more, but this is my blog and I can whine if I want to.

A few tidbits that I can pull out of my scatter-brain:

Driving by that organic farm near us, out of the blue, J says "That little piggy went to market"  I didn't comment, figuring he must have seen the pigs frolicking in the field, as we often do. Topping the hill, we see a cloud of smoke billowing from behind the farm store, but couldn't figure out if it was their smoker, or a brush fire.
Opening the window, we sniff and both say "Bacon, mmmm".

While in RI, we drove to Jamestown, an island in Narragansett Bay, between North Kingstown and Newport. When we were kids there were ferries, which have long since been replaced by bridges. J and I don't like driving over bridges. Long time phobia for me, J just joined in a few years ago. Seems strange for a guy who jumped out of airplanes in the Army.

The old bridge was one of those that had the metal grating on the top, but did have the high arched sides as well.  The new one is flatter, and is concrete roadway with low sides. As a passenger, I thought it was much better. J reported feeling as though he were driving straight up and off the top.  On the way home, I suggested that he might  feel better driving in the inside lane, away from the edge. "Okay" and the van immediately swerved into that lane. "Whoa, just a suggestion, big boy!"  He says he looked behind him first, but I don't think so.

We drove out to Beavertail and the lighthouse there, and around the parks at two forts built there many wars ago. It was a nice Sunday morning, and we saw lots of couples and some family groups walking together.
"Why didn't we ever get into walking together as a family on Sunday mornings, J?"
 "mmmmph"
"I guess we were too busy sleeping late"

It was close to 20 years since we'd been out there, I think. It was one of the first places we went while dating. I was trying to remember where it was that we had gotten out and had our first daytime-not-end-of-date kiss. I guess I hadn't paid much attention to the landscape, and I don't know if J even remembered the occasion.

So, we got out at one park, and walked down towards the sea. It was high cliffs here and I could hear water rushing through a gorge, so I wanted a closer look. Staying about 6 feet from the edge, I checked it out and heard J from 20 feet behind me.
"This is close enough for me"
Me: "Okay let's go back to the car"
J heads back up the gravelly slope without a backwards glance to be sure I was not falling to my death.
Me: "This is why we never did family walks!"

A nice week

Last week was my first not working, and I got used to it quickly. I expected to think more about what I was missing, but that didn't happen. I easily changed to sleeping earlier, and getting up between 7 & 8. It helped that it was sunny a lot of the time. I love sun.

I went to RI for a quick visit to my parents, and was pleased to see both them looking well. Ma is wearing a heart monitor for 30 days, and it rings a dozen or so times a day. She doesn't feel any fluttering though, and apparently the monitor doesn't react when she does feel it. Although she has had no bigger episodes since being hooked up. Technology is amazing. After calling, she holds the phone over the monitor and the info stored is transmitted to the recording company, then to the doctor.

I looked through some old photos and brought some home to scan of my grandparents and my great-grands. My mother's grandparents both emigrated from Sweden and met in the US. Imagine leaving home in your teens, moving to a foreign country as a servant, and never returning. I barely remember her, a little round lady in black, very scary, but Grandpa O. lived to 87, and was a gentle man, who used snuff. I have their dresser now, with little drawers that lock with keys and a tall mirror in the middle.