“Houston, we have a baby!”
Grandchild number 6 was born on October 30th. Miss Kayla Marie DeSanti, daughter of Cassie Anna and her husband Matt weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz and 21 1/2 inches long (about ‘this’ heavy and approximately ‘so’ long in metric as I have no clue). She joins her big sister Marilyn in the DeSanti family. We will meet this latest brown haired and brown eyed beauty in a few days when we arrive in Oregon.
As smooth of a start as it may have been, it quickly became dramatic as little Kayla was returned and admitted to the hospital within 48 hours to be treated for Jaundice. This required Cassie Anna to spend 3 days around the clock with her newborn until she was released.
On the other end of the spectrum, we are thrilled to announce that my favorite mother in law Lorraine remarried this month to Vern Jackson. They immediately flew off to Fiji and Australia to snorkel off the barrier reef for their honeymoon. The lifestyle at their age makes them our personal heroes.
Moving on
Barbara and Wayne Terry
Days before we pulled up stakes at the Bee we made a quick trip to Ottawa to visit with our friends Wayne and Barb who we expect will join us for a visit in Europe this winter or Spring.
There is a certain sadness every year when we close up the cabin for another season. It is part of our yearly cycle but like kids, we don’t like putting our toys away. Every year the process of winterizing has gotten a little better, easier and faster but clearly I still have more to learn. Since we won’t be back for 7 months we don’t heat the cabin and so it freezes rock solid during the winter months. It’s hard to describe to people the lengths we have to go through to protect the contents from freezing damage.
Things like draining the hot water tank and pipes as well as removing all canned goods are obvious. Less obvious are things like draining the water out of the traps below the sinks and pumping RV antifreeze in the dishwasher and washing machine. Really obtuse little details and one that I had missed last year was cleaning out the pump soap dispensers in the kitchen and bathroom. Liquid soap is largely water and when it freezes the little pumps crack and won’t work when we arrive in June. It took me 3 seasons to finally figure it out.
As I have become faster, more efficient and comfortable with this whole winterizing thing I have begun to take on new tasks. This year I boldly went where I had not gone before and winterized both our boats. Like most things, it’s not rocket science and it’s not particularly difficult but following the proper steps is crucial if you want the engine to ever start again.
It’s pretty straightforward once you know how but until you work out the proper sequence of things you are working inefficiently. Next year I expect to get this task done in about a third of the time. Sadly, gone are the days of just docking our boat and throwing the keys to the attendant saying “see you in the spring”. Very civilized, but a little pricey.
For years we have wondered what the island would be like in the winter, buried under all that snow. Of course, we will never know as we make a point of leaving before it gets really cold. Or so we thought.
We got caught flat footed this year with a rare snowstorm on the day before and day of our departure. It is not unusual to have to bail out our little boat after heavy rains but this is the first time I had to shovel snow out before we could load our suitcases into the boat. It snowed a total of 6 inches (15 cm) before we could get out of the area.
In the last few weeks before leaving I also took the time to finalize a few details that will be important upon our arrival next spring. I mentioned last summer that the clock was ticking and that my flying days were slowly approaching. The plan is on schedule to begin assembling my Challenger II LSA (Light Sport Aircraft) amphibious airplane upon our arrival next summer.
To that end I have meet with my flight instructor, secured a warehouse (and two backups) where I can assemble the plane and finalized researching the licensing requirements that will allow me to fly cross border. It is astounding to me that I will have to upgrade my pilot’s license to be able to enter 30 feet (10 meters) inside Canada’s jurisdiction. Think of it. That is less that the width of your house and how far inside the Canadian border our dock is.
Sometime last winter I woke up one morning with a pain in my left shoulder. It was one of those inexplicable pains, as I could not recall anything I had done that that would have caused it. As is often the case, we find ourselves at a time in our lives where we not only have more of these little medical issues but seem to spend time in doctor’s offices on a more frequent basis trying to address them.
Then we have to listen to other old farts going on and on ad nauseum, describing all their aches and pains and hear all about their doctors visits. Boriiiiiiing!!! I for one am getting pretty tired of lazy incompetent doctors trying to make excuses for their inadequate medical skills by always claiming my issues are directly related to how many darn candles are on my birthday cake and are just another OMC (old man complaint).
Being in France at the time, I tried some type of useless new age therapy with a therapy that involved little more than waiving a rubber chicken over my head and thinking happy thoughts. Surprising, since French medicine is usually very good. By the time I got back to America this summer and worked my way through the gauntlet of referring physicians and was referred to an orthopedic specialist, it was fall.
Finally, I was sent to a physical therapist with little expectation that I would get much help. Amazingly, within a week I was doing considerably better and was on my way to a full recovery. I came home singing Emily’s praises daily and Janice soon began to lament that Emily was probably petite, blond and had a healthy set of lungs. (Editor’s note: I am paraphrasing here. After all, the Epistle is a family publication) I of course told her what any smart man would say under the circumstance, which is that she was old, fat and ugly. “Besides”, I said, “her middle name is probably Olga”.
On a different medical topic, our daughter Mandy told us recently of an attempt she made to raise extra money by offering to participate in medical drug trials. The conversation soon ended though when she asked them if they could guarantee that she would be in the group that received the placebos!
Oh, by the way, while she clearly won’t need it, I do want to wish Emily luck in next month’s swimsuit competition at the ‘Miss New York State’ finals in Albany…..
Ian
We left the Island for the season and headed to our friend Ian’s home near Montreal where we finally got to meet his lovely wife. We stayed for a few days before heading off together for a week long home exchange in Maine. As I have mentioned before, Ian is the fellow who has taken all the spectacular aerial photos of the Thousand Island that we include in our blog each month when we are there. He has self published 3 hardcover books of photos of the area over the past several years that have sold well over 50,000 copies to date. He is currently working on a new book that he hopes will be out by summer.
Ironically, he has spent a good part of his youth in Kennebunkport and the surrounding area so was a perfect companion to have along to show us the in’s and out’s of the area and act as our personal tour guide.
Bush family compound in KennebunkportWe visited all of Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, numerous beaches and saw the Bush family compound. On one day, Janice and I peeled off and spent the day in nearby Boston. We had lunch at the ‘Green Dragon’, a 351 year old pub (est.1657) where Paul Revere, John Hancock and John Adams concocted the strategies that led to the Boston Tea Party. Before leaving, he introduced us to friends of his that are lobster fishermen. Naturally, we spent a couple of hours steaming and gutting dozens of lobsters for him to take home.
Wow, how time flies when you are having fun. I celebrated my 4th anniversary at being retired the other day. You would think I would be used to it by now but I am not. I still feel like a kid let out of school for the summer. NO HOMEWORK!!! YAHOOOOOOOOO!! We absolutely love this life, are very grateful and feel so blessed for every day. We don’t know how long we can keep this up but in 40 years when I am old I hope the stock market will have recovered so we can still have a few dollars left to play with.
One self imposed chore we have continued working on is packing family videotapes, slides and picture albums that we have stored at home in California and take them on the road with us. We pack right up to the airline’s allowable weight limits and take them to Europe. Then, over the winter we scan the pictures into the computer and to an offsite backup storage service as well as converting our old family videotapes to DVD’s. It’s one of those ‘someday I should get around to doing this” projects and we have been working on it slowly but diligently.
When we return, we bring all the albums and videotapes back to store at home in California and take a new bunch to Honey Bee to do the same thing over the summer. As we always transition through California, those go back also upon our return in order to get a new bunch to take back to France yet again. It is a slow process as we have a family’s lifetime of memories we want to protect. Slow but sure, we are getting there. I hope to upload them online sometime this winter to make them available to all our kids.
Yes, I know. We had a little election. No matter where in the world we are, we have always voted by absentee ballot and this time was no exception. Our side may not have prevailed but we sure weren’t going to simply hand it over to them. I may disagree with the outcome but it doesn’t mean I have to be disagreeable.
Despite the outcome, it is reassuring to see that at least we are still capable of a peaceful transition of power. I reminded myself that I spent 3 years in the service of my country to help make this kind of outcome possible. You know I have other strong political opinions to share here but I endeavor to do it while deferring to my mother’s advice when I was a kid and she said “If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all”
Any questions?
We are back home in sunny California having visited with many friends in the area. I spent a few days with our daughter Kami in Los Angeles for some dad and daughter time. She is an avid shooter so we took in a gun show as well as a friendly competitive round at her favorite indoor shooting range. We kept a sharp eye out for the many large fires nearby which are consuming hundreds of homes in the LA area even as I write this.
Our home is doing fine as we are 250 miles North of LA (400 kilometers), our renters are happy and we are finishing our scheduled maintenance chores that we wanted to get done this go around. Time to fly off to Washington and Oregon to see more kids and grand kids.
See you next month
