Back in Town

Just got back from a busy but rather relaxing 3-day New England weekend -- stayed with Kathy's folks Friday and Sunday night, and was in the suburbs of Boston for Seder with family on my Dad's side. Got to see several people (cousins, aunt and uncle) I haven't seen in about four years (the last time the Seder fell on a weekend), and really enjoyed it. We were kindly driven to/from Massachusetts by my Aunt Faith and my cousin Jeff (whom we've seen much more recently). After we left Massachusetts, we went to Rhode Island to visit my Aunt Gladys, my grandmother's younger sister. At 91, she's still doing remarkably well. Pretty coherent, hears ok (with hearing aid), and sees very well (with bi-focals). Jeff had taken photos at the Seder so we could show them to Gladys, but unfortunately, her old TV didn't have the cable cords for us to show the pics and movies enlarged. Amazingly, she was able to see the 1.8" screen on Jeff's camera fine. To our shame, we hadn't seen her in four years. In the future, we'll try to drive over there every time we go up to visit Kathy's folks. She lives only an hour or so from there.

The visit with Kathy's family was nice as well -- in addition to seeing the folks, we got to see her sister Suz, her sister's three children, and boyfriend. And at various times, the adults talked about where we would like to set up the family co-op/commune, and what we'd do there. It's a dream we all have at various times, and while so far we haven't collectively gotten the get-up-and-go to do it, it's something we consider. The latest "what we'd do" is open several stores under one roof -- Books, Bean (i.e., coffee), Bikes, Beer, Boats, & Baubles (with a B&B to boot), giving each of us at least one store that sells something we love. Sounds like it might be a bit too ambitious, but at the least it's pretty alliterative.