August, 2010

©Ian Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.com

Guess where that truck driver would rather be?
Around here, we are apt to say...
"If you are lucky enough to live in the Islands, you are lucky enough.

TIAFU
(Thousand Islands Air force Update)

I bought an aircraft carrier last month. No really…I am not kidding. OK, so it is mis-marketed as a ‘pontoon boat lift’ but I think that is just so the Russians don’t catch on. I bought it much sooner than I needed it as the plane is hardly finished, but it is another critical component to allow this wing of the Thousand Islands Air Force to patrol these parts.

What is this gizmo?

Pre-launch scratching, spitting and planning

It was used, but it was the only one I had ever seen of this size that would accommodate the floats on my plane. The way it works is by lowering the frame underwater and floating the plane over it, you raise the frame with the plane on it by turning the large wheel.

Working smarter, not harder. We
are going to float this puppy into place...

Opportunity knocked and I rushed to open the door. Because of its size, I had to disassemble it, float it across the river in my smaller aluminum boat and reassemble it on the island. The real event was picking the now reassembled 450 pound (200 kilos) unwieldy beast up and getting it out to its final resting place in the river.

Gently.....

I realize that no one really gives a rip about this thing but I spent many sleepless nights trying to think about every possible misstep and what I could do to prevent or mitigate it. Every step of this process required help. I am grateful to my many friends who risked life and limb to help make it happen. The whole event was injury free and flawlessly executed, due to meticulous prior planning and having the right tools. Good work, men!

No, this is not a Chinese fire drill.
This is a well oiled, coordinated work team.

I had planned for 8 of us to move this thing, including a neighbor who had allowed me to use a tool in his garage a few days earlier to work on a part for my airplane. Unfortunately, just as I was about to stop by and ask him, he was killed in a horrific motorcycle accident when he was struck head on by a drunk driver in the middle of the afternoon. He was a quiet but very competent man who a few years ago was instrumental in saving our island during our absence, when a fire started near a burn bin we had . We will forever be in his debt for that.

Success!

Here is how it works.
Pretend I am the plane. No, not some whacked out nut job, a plane.
As seen here I float over the submerged lift and...

...when the wheel is turned the plane is lifted out of the
water to secure it during storms, wake from passing boats, etc.

Speaking of the plane, I did get to put in a few more hours this month and I continue to chip away at it. The most visible part of what I got done was putting my instrument panel in and got serious about the electrical wiring. Getting serious does not mean I am done. It means I got seriously started.

Where does the purple wire go on the back of the instrument panel?

See? Piece of cake!

This picture ought to bring chills to a couple of my friends who have helped me with some electrical issues I have had in the house and was not able to figure out on my own. They know that in spite of having wired two homes, electrical work does not play on my strengths. Knowing that I will do all the electrical work on my plane will surely cause them to run out and take a life insurance policy on me, naming themselves as beneficiaries.

The business end of things.


My uncle Dave helping me install the windshield.
White paper covers the Lexan to protect it
from scratches until final assembly

Finishing the electrical does signify an important step though because when I am done, I will be ready to cover the fuselage (the main part of the plane you sit in), paint, install the engine, perform endless time consuming minor tweaks, adjustments and finishing touches so I can begin to fly. Cool huh? Meanwhile, don’t hold your breath or ask me in a month if I am done. I won’t be.

Birthdays galore!

We had a whole raft of birthdays this past month. For one, it was 10 years ago this month since we bought the Bee. We had come to the East Coast to attend my grandfather’s 100th birthday family get together when we spent a few days at a cottage we had rented nearby.

We toured the area on a tourist cruise ship and we were in awe. Later that day and on a whim, Janice and I drove over to the Canadian side to have cocktails at a riverside hotel when Janice picked up a real estate flier and spotted an island for sale. “Wanna buy an Island?” she said. The next morning we were on the agent’s boat and the moment we saw it we were in love (with the island too).

Janice was a birthday girl this past month but I can’t quite say she celebrated. It was shortly after her chemo treatment so it was hardly a party or a picnic for her. I had my birthday also, truly a depressing time as I entered the next decade of my life involuntarily, kicking and screaming all the way. Funny, I don’t feel like I am circling the drain. There is a real irony in the fact that the best time of my life is happening at this age. Could my birth certificate be wrong?

I figure I have at least another 70 years of plans and projects ahead of me so I better either get moving faster or plan on living longer because people tell me the math is not adding up.

New Hampshire

We just got back from New Hampshire where we spent a week on a home exchange. As always, it allowed us the opportunity to visit little nooks and crannies in New England that we were not familiar with. With the Island rented out for a week during our travels, it gave us a break and a vacation from...well...eh... gosh, I dunno! What can I say, it was a blast. It was a resort home facing the pond within the Forest Hill Estates in the White Mountains.

One of the reasons Janice likes the home exchanges so much is that she often sees something that catches her eye that 'we' can do at our place. I am happy that she then has a reason to keep me around a little longer.

It was a real relaxing time for us as we visited the area.

We swam at both a local beach

at the foot of Mt. Washington...

and at a local swimming hole....

We crossed a number of New England covered bridges...

and took the Cog railroad up Mt. Washington. It is the highest peak in the North West US, with the record for the strongest winds ever recorded by man (231 MPH / 372 KPH). This was the worlds first Cog railroad, with the wheels only keeping the train on the tracks but supplying no power. The power of this steam powered train goes to the 'Cog' or gear that climbs a center sprocket between the tracks to prevent the train from sliding back down the mountain's 37 degree slope.

This, is seriously steep.

Another diagnosis...

You would think that with Janice battling Cancer, we would have enough on our plate to deal with. But no, having just past another un-welcomed milestone on the birthday calendar, we now find out that we have both been diagnosed with a new condition. Something called 'Islomania'. It is a little embarrassing to write about on these pages but there is a short description of the condition at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islomania
(You can copy and paste the link into your browser)

No, it is not fatal but then again there is only one known treatment and it is expensive. Currently, we have somewhat under control. As rare as it is, we actually know at least one other person with it.

How I spent my summer vacation...

Meanwhile, Janice continues with her chemo treatments and will begin radiation sessions in September. As of this date we are continuing to try to work things out with our insurance company to allow us to return to France for the winter and complete the treatments there. We will see.

Don't forget. You can click on any photo
for a much larger view.
Drop us a line, we would love to hear from you.

July 2010

©Ian Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.com

The Canadian span of the Thousand Island bridge.
Our Island is just to the right of the island on the far right.

Mandy visits.

Daughter Mandy just spent three weeks with us. It is quite a milestone when a kid fly's half way around the world on her own nickel, lands on your doorstep and says “What can I do to help”? And help she did.


She crawled under the house to bring me cement to finish a project, painted our deck, cooked and helped with mom’s chores. Still, we managed a little fun in there too. She and I attended a concert together and watched the July 4th fireworks over Bolt Castle sitting while sitting in a boat in the middle of the river.

We picked raspberries and cherries and she made jam with Janice. We also went out to see the racing boats in our yearly local ‘Polker run’. We swam to our hearts delight. The point of the trip though was to be with her mom on her Chemo days, spending the days with her at the hospital. Unless you do this , it is hard to get your head around the fact that when there everyone you see has Cancer and is really sick. Janice underwent Chemo # 4 today and so is 2/3 done...
Chemo, that is. Treatments go on until next May.

Monique and Joe Schrettner dropping by for an overnight visit

No sooner had we sent Mandy packing that we had a drive by visit from family in California. The last time they dropped in was four years ago and they had very different recollections of the state of the place, with Janice still cooking on the deck as we had no kitchen. It is always great to see them .

This month at the Bee

One of the reasons I have spent so little time working on the plane to date was my reluctance to leave Janice with no practical way to get off the island in the event of a need to do so. I have a cell phone with me so I am always reachable when I am gone but still… She was not able to ‘pull start’ our old used outboard motor so she was stuck having to row our aluminum boat. We fixed that this month. We bought a new electric start , gasoline powered 15 HP outboard (push a button to start and go!) It is now easier to ‘drive’ than a car (no brakes). I added floorboards for dry feet and stability and installed a bilge pump so it never needs to be bailed out after a rainstorm. A couple of upholstered seats completed the upgrade.



Honey Bee is located in the International Rift between two large islands, one Canadian and another American. This area separates the two countries in the middle of this part of the river. The width of this ‘rift’ is as little as 25 feet (8 meters) and as wide as several hundred feet (100 meters). The rivers width right in front of our dock is about 200 feet (70 meters) This is the area we use to swim as our dock is there, the water depth is only 7-10 feet and the current is very gentle.

Incredibly, there are also several warm water vents that provide warmer streams of water and we often jockey for position right over them when swimming. The rift though, is a shortcut from the Canadian and US sides of the main shipping channels so on the weekends we can get a fair amount of slow going small vessel traffic.

Divers (swimmers) below!

This has concerned me for some time as these boats pass near where we swim. They may be going slow and they are watchful but…. I would hate for one of us to get run over. I had been contemplating how I could rope off a swimming area with buoys or markers of some kind, realizing that this is a boating channel and is not for our exclusive use. The solution came to me recently when I got a flag that is internationally recognized by boaters warning them of ‘divers below’. Now when we swim, I simply toss the float with the removable flag into the water and dive down to attach its line to a sunken cement block so that it remains stationary. Boats now give us a wide berth and everyone is happy.

National Geographic says
we are the bomb!

The Rideau Canal (a great boat ride from us) is the second best destination in the world, according to the most recent sustainable tourism survey by the National Geographic Society. The Society gave the region a long-sought stamp of approval last winter.

It’s Center for 'sustainable destinations' says that geotourism is tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place: its environment, culture, esthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents. In 2008, it rated the Rideau Canal National Historic Site, which is part of the biosphere reserve, second best among worldwide historic destinations in its global stewardship survey.

The Frontenac Arch biosphere, a nearly 3,000-square km region that includes the Thousand Islands, the Rideau Canal and much of the Land 'O Lakes area is only the ninth region worldwide -- and the first in Ontario -- to get the charter from National Geographic. And now you know the rest of the story.

One more time...

We never tire of trying to share the breathtaking images of our little piece of paradise and below is a video compilation of some of the images in our friend Ian Coristines latest book. If you want to take a peek, just click on the arrow in the center of the image below.

June, 2010

©Ian Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.com

The "Fair Jeanne" in the Lost Channel

Coristine's magic

We recently attended Ian Coristine's book launch of his fifth picture book "The very best of Ian Coristine's 1000 Islands". Over the past several years he and his wife Mary have become very good friends and own a spectacular island a few miles downstream.

We met at one of his book signings when I introduced myself as a wanna be Challenger aircraft builder who wanted to pick his brains, as he was the former representative for the company in Canada. (The Epistle, November 2008) Over the years, he used his plane to take some 30,000 aerial photographs. Then, he got busy self publishing one coffee table styled book at a time and to date has sold some 60,000 copies in the local area alone. His latest is aptly named, as it is the very best with every page being like a liquid gloss book cover. Every month in the summer, he generously allows me to help myself to a photo out of his collection to open the months posting on my blog so I can share with you some of the great images of the area.

This months is no exception. The scene above is of the tall ship "Fair Jeanne" coming through an area of the river called "The Lost Channel". Janice and I sailed on her last year but this picture captures the first time in 249 years that a tall ship has ventured into this particular area of the 1000 Islands (minutes away from our dock). The last time was on August 14th, 1760 when Britain's HMS Onondaga was lured into the labyrinth by French attackers. A boat with 14 men was lowered to warn HMS Mohawk away, but was never seen again. On failing to find even where it was lowered, this spot became known as the Lost Channel. Ian was the only one to capture this latest scene.

Aside from having sold his plane (an unforgivable mortal sin in my book) and insisting on using a fruity computer (you know the kind that has an orange or a banana...no wait!..an 'apple' as it's logo), it's hard to find much wrong with the guy. It's not every day one gets to brag about a friends accomplishments, but dude, ya done good! We are very proud of you.

The scam

As most or all of you know by now, we had our email account hacked last month. I woke up one morning, fired up the computer to check on emails and could not get in as my password was not registering as valid. Thinking that I made a typo, I tried again and again. Truly frustrated and annoyed, the phone rang with a call from a friend telling me my email account had been hijacked.

Unless you have had it happen to you, it is hard to understand how powerless and violated it makes you feel. It is the digital virtual version of being raped. I began getting calls from friends in France, California and parts beyond asking me what the heck was going on. It seems that the nice man from Nigeria that hacked our account changed the account password so that I could no longer access it. Then he sent an email to everyone in my address book as 'me' with a sad tale of Janice and I being robbed in London England, and needing money wired to us immediately.


Some recipients knew immediately this was impossible as we were at the Island and Janice was undergoing treatment for cancer. Others were confused but wary. It took me 24 hours to contact Yahoo and work things out with them, change my password, profile, ect. My greatest fear was that someone would succumb and send money before I could warn them.

The unnerving part is that to this day I have no idea how my account got hacked. I have always used a password that has combination's of letters and numbers that is considered very secure. Of course all bank account and other locations where we use a password had to be changed also.

At first I was relieved and pleased that not a single person was duped. Then I thought.....hey....NOT one person sent me money in what they thought was my time of need? A fine bunch of friends you turned out to be! Shortly thereafter the comedians came out of the woodwork asking when they could expect the thousands of dollars they 'sent' me back?

This might be a good time to check that you have our correct email address and that you did not inadvertently end up with the hacked one. Our email address is starfireproductions@yahoo.com. If you have anything else, it is wrong. Some people have asked how they will know if an email from us, is truly from us? It's simple really. If the email is asking you to drop us a line or ask about news from your end of the world, it's from us. If the email ever asks you for money, it's not from us.

From the project dept.

Every summer when we first show up at the cabin, we run around to make sure everything is OK and has survived another winter and long absence. So far, so good. The one thing that has clearly deteriorated are the seams in the drywall. Because we do not heat the place in the winter, there is some expansion and contraction that occurs and a fine gap can be seen where the drywall sheets meet. Fortunately there is little drywall in the house as it is mostly logs, as one would expect in a log cabin. However, there is drywall in the kitchen and these minor gaps could be seen developing on the ceiling.






In the bedrooms we had trusses that were part of the roof supports that crossed the length of the rooms. Clearly structural, these bad boys were not removable but hardly fit the decor. We killed two birds with one stone last month by fitting beams over the kitchen ceiling gaps and softiting the trusses with beams also. You can see the results above and judge for yourself.

The Cancer thing

Janice had her second Chemo this month and was quick to point out that she was a third of the way through. A third of the way through Chemo maybe, but only one tenth of the year long process. She will have a total of six Chemo treatments, three weeks apart but still needs secondary weekly treatments. People ask if the treatments are easier to support the second time around. The answer is no. The treatments maybe more effective but are still no picnic.

A "Bee" of a BBQ

She is not allowed to be in the sun much. On the island for the summer, that is like taking a kid to the candy store and saying “look but don’t touch”. To level the playing field, we got a commercial 11’ (nearly 3 meter) umbrella for the dock so she could be outside but not in direct sunlight. This beast is attached to a 250 pound (113 kilos) base filled with wet sand so that it won’t blow away in the wind. I set it up and within an hour in a light breeze it was in the river.

Before

After shaving head (with wig)

It would appear that it is designed to be in a backyard, poolside or in some place that is sheltered. This was a month ago so the water temperature was still cold enough to cause an instant (virtual) sex change to any man who would dare venture in it. We drew straws and as luck would have it she told me that I drew the short one so I had to fetch it. Funny how that works.

This time I was going to work smarter, not harder. I bolted the sucker to the dock, then filled it with the wet sand.

The plane

I have started back working on the plane recently. I had the engine delivered and I am moving forward one step at a time. With weekly trips to the hospital and other non aviation related activities and obligations, I will clearly not have the time I need to devote to this pursuit to finish it in the time frame I had planned for. No matter, I will get it done as I am able and I will fly or die trying. Hopefully, not as a result of.

May, 2010

©Ian Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.com

What is an Island like?
Well, it's kinda like a castle, but with a bigger moat

The Cancer thing.

OK, here is the update. After all the tests were completed, it was decided to perform the surgery first as they were concerned that after chemo, the tumor could be reduced enough that it would be hard to find. So, the surgeon decided to go ahead and excise it and clean up any residual tissue with chemo later.

The surgery was performed on May 6th, Janice went home 2 days later and has been recuperating since. She received her first chemo on May 14th.

Her doctors are a trip. My age is definitely showing as the first time we meet them I believed it was ‘career day’ at the hospital. They walked into the examination room and I thought “How cute, these kids are dressed like real doctors” as they looked like they were about 12 years old. They introduced themselves and then I thought “Well, the class of 2010 has to start somewhere!” It was only later that we were told these two were the heads of their respective departments at this teaching hospital and Janice had actually been assigned to the A team.



From here on out it will be rather routine with chemo or other drugs administered every week and radiation to start some time down the road. We have not left each others side since we arrived so there has been no thought to returning to the hangar to work on the plane. That might change in a few weeks if she does well enough to be left on her own during the day. We will see.

Meanwhile, since she was down for the count, I have been brushing up on my cooking skills. It has been a while since I won her over with my culinary prowess so this seemed like a good time to make an impression.

All I needed was a little refresher, so she would give directions from the sofa and I would prepare the 5 star courses. We got off to a slow start when on our first day she instructed me to "saute" the meat. A half hour later I admitted that I couldn't find the "saute' in either a can or jar anywhere.

My cooking must have been pretty good because she said that she got well in no time and was up for taking over.

So, what is there to do around here?

Just because I am playing nurse maid doesn’t mean we are all dawdling. One of us has been taking advantage of our time to move ahead with a project that had been put on hold last summer due to the more important item at the top of the list. (Make airplane noises here) As much as I despised doing it, I spent many days last month crawling on my back over dirt and stones (there was not enough space to roll over) under the entire cabin with less than 3 inches (5 cm) of working space over my nose. In fact, in some areas I had to take the nails out of my shirt pocket to be able to crawl by.

Ahhhhh! Isn't retirement great?

The goal was to insulate under the cabin floor and cover it with wire mesh to keep mice and other animals out. This meant working overhead with insulation raining down on my face the whole time. [I am not whining, I am merely describing the revolting working conditions that I heroically endured! ] This proved useful as we arrived two months earlier than usual and the temperatures really dropped at night. Further, it is our intention to install a heat pump & A/C combo in the future so I got all the ducting in place at the same time.

As long as I was acting like a mole, I thought it a good time to dig some footings. You see, as the cabin gets closer to being finished on the inside, we are growing less and less happy with the look on the outside. The logs look fine but the porch is way overdo for a complete re-do, as well as the shake siding and the need to enclose the open area outside between the ground and the floor. I know! Let’s make it a project!!!

Seriously, we will get to all of that eventually but the time has come to deal with some serious infrastructure issues. This cabin is well over 100 years old and was only intended to be a fishing cabin, not a real residence. So, it is not surprising that the logs rest on a foundation that is little more than piled rocks, albeit some pretty big ones. Nothing has budged in all that time so I am sure that it is fine. However, we have invested too much time, effort and money for it to be OK for the house simply resting on piles of rocks and calling that a foundation.

You're kidding, right?

To that end, I crawled back under and dug footings at all proper locations and poured structural concrete in Sono tubes to create proper pilings and bolted them to structural Simpson ties. This is not required for any building permit so no inspection is necessary. This is just something I am doing out of an abundance of caution.

Old apple press, now floor lamp

Wanting a break from such nasty tasks and having way too much free time on her hands, Janice got another great idea for something for me to do. Years ago, I had made an Oak apple press to make juice. I used it a few times but like you, concluded that at .79c a bottle the effort was not worth it. Regardless, it was great fun with the kids. Meanwhile, this cool looking but somewhat useless item was taking space. So last summer when we were traveling through the Adirondacks, we bought a lamp shade that was made of Birch bark. This month I finished the project and turned the whole shebang into a floor lamp.



Then, to give my favorite patient a safer place to walk around the island, I carved out an extension to our path with pick and shovel and covered it in cedar wood chips.

Officer wait, I can explain!

A funny thing happened on the way back from Canada. Within days of our arrival here, I was returning from Canada to the US in our car when I stopped for the usual border inspection. The officer asked me whose car I was driving and I told her that, of course, it was mine. She asked me for my registration and I realized that all I had in that car with me was my outdated year old registration. You see, usually, we fly from Europe to California first where we pick up our updated current registration to have with us when we arrive at the island.

This time we flew to NY State directly for Janice’s treatment and my current registration was still at my mother in laws… and she was stuck in Prague as she was one of the thousands who could not fly due to the volcano ash sweeping across Europe. The border agent then asked for my insurance card. I began to panic as I realized that it was still in my briefcase at the island. Finally, the agent pointed out that my license plate was one digit off from my registration card and my plate was showing up in her computer as belonging to some Asian man's Honda.

Crap!

I was beginning to look and sound more like a convict by the minute, stammering with excuses and explanations that even I would have had trouble believing. Finally the inevitable happened when they asked me to hand them the car keys, get out of the vehicle keeping my hands in plain sight and go inside the office while they searched the car and dragged me over the coals to sort out my sordid tale. I had visions of being shipped off to Guantanamo dancing in my head.

Having found no contraband, illegal aliens in the trunk or any sign of shenanigans, I was released a couple of hours later. The problem was that I still had a mismatched registration card and license plates (a simple typo at the department of motor vehicles) that proved to be an absolute nightmare to resolve from 3000 miles away (5,000km) When I called California to ask what to do, their solution I was told, was simple... "just bring the car back to California".

Yea, right.

The real solution, as always, was knowing people. My ex boss found out some of the forms I would need. Then a friend of a friend who worked for the DMV coached us through the process. I had to mail my license plates back to California and wait for new ones to be issued. Meanwhile we were unable to enter Canada by car or drive our car until this was resolved which proved to be very awkward as our shore dock is in Canada and it is where we park. I have mentioned in these pages before how easy it is for us to get around by boat and that virtually everything we need (groceries, post office, pharmacy, church, etc) is within a short boat ride. Everything of course, except the Cancer center 90 miles away.

The process to complete this assignment required an unconventional, unsanctioned, back channel approach that prevents me from identifying the participants. Suffice it to say that had they been caught or captured, the secretary would have disavowed their actions.

April 2010

©Ian Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.com

Tall ship 'Fair Jeanne' by Singer Castle

The cancer thing

Here’s the latest. After Janice’s initial diagnosis last month, we were sent to meet the specialists at the University teaching hospital in Rennes, the capital of Brittany. There, she was examined by the head of oncology and a plethora of tests were scheduled within days with a plan to start chemo within 72 hours... until I called our health insurance company in the US.

We have international coverage so that we are eligible for care anywhere in the world. The catch is “in an emergency”. Whenever we see a doctor in Europe for a cold or any run of the mill illness, it is simply a doctor’s visit and we are good to go. His bill is less than our co-pay. But while we may see cancer as an ‘emergency’ it is, in fact, not.

Emergency is defined as being run over by a truck, have the pieces scooped up and being admitted to the hospital so they can put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Cancer on the other hand is a serious illness and needs immediate care. Immediate as in ‘get on the next plane’ so you can receive care in a US hospital. The fact that we want to play Mr. and Mrs. globetrotter is not their problem.

Janice at home in France before our departure

So we had to cancel all our flights back to the west coast, back and forth to Seattle from Los Angeles and back to the east coast yet again to the island (Our tickets are non refundable, non-exchangeable, non-everything-able). Instead, we booked a new one way flight from Paris to New York in the middle of two British Air strikes, rented a car and drove the 6 hours up to the island.

One real plus in the whole experience was that when we checked in at the airport we were told that our seat assignments has been changed. As I was about to begin ranting and raving about not wanting to be stuck in some middle seat, the agent told me he had upgraded us to business class.

With full lie down seats, menus for meal choices and wine selections as well as access to the airport 1st class lounge (showers, open bar and buffet) I agreed to accommodate the airlines need to reassign us. Spoiled for life, we never want to travel like little people again.

Fortunately, we had a friend (who happens to be a doctor and an island neighbor) who called in a bunch of IOU’s and set us up with a colleague who is the head of oncology at the Syracuse University Hospital. She was out of town for the week we arrived and so yet another delay was to be dealt with. Finally, on the appointed day we met with her and her 'team" and were duly impressed.

The expected barrage of tests were performed today. This included a PET full body scan and 2 MRI scans including a brain scan. [Janice insists that this proves once and for all that she actually has one!]. Seriously though, I sent this newsletter out a day later than usual because of the potential implications if the tests had come back showing that the cancer was not localized and had spread far and wide. In that case, we would have wanted to tell the kids individually and not have them read about it here.

The plan is basically to perform chemo for 6 sessions, 3 weeks apart, surgery somewhere in the mix, radiation for an yet to be determined period and a toxic cocktail called HTC for a period to follow. The unexpected part was that the plan is for the treatment to last up to a year.

While it is still very early in the game, this could prove to be logistically challenging. We can only stay on the Island till the end of October as the river freezes afterward and we cannot stay. Unless the doctors can convince our insurance company to allow us to finish the treatments in France next winter, we could be forced to stay here and effectively be....homeless. The irony of having 3 homes in 3 countries on two continents and being homeless has not escaped us. We could be forced to rent a house locally to hide out till Spring.

Just so you know, we hate to hear about people who whine incessantly about all of their medical issues too. This was an initial update and I will, from time to time, mention anything significant that comes up. Otherwise, we won’t bore you with all the gory details.

The transition

Wayne & Barbara at Roman ruins in Glanum

For obvious reasons, this year’s transition was a little different. Having spent only 4 months in Europe this year, we had planned a 3 week trip across Europe including a week in the South of France with our friends Wayne and Barbara who were visiting from Canada. Upon their return home, we were to continue with a week in Vienna to see Mandy compete in a moot court competition for her University and a week in Eastern Europe.

Villa we exchanged for in Provence

Of course, 48 hours before our departure we got Janice’s diagnosis and all bets were off. Since we had a week before we could see the specialists in France, we decided to spend it as planned at a home exchange in the South of France. The house was a 5 bedroom, 5 bathroom villa with a pool in Gordes in the heart of Provence. The weather was great and we spent the week visiting Roman ruins, cute little towns, Chateau’s and talking Janice out of buying another house.

Yes honey, it's perfect....but we can't buy it.

To add to the chaos, our exchange guests whose home we had planned to stay at in Vienna were coming to stay at our place in what turned out to be our last week while we were awaiting our flight back home. We did not want to make our problem theirs as they too had booked flights, rented cars and the like, so we opted to stay with good friends in the village who take in homeless types like us.

To avoid getting bored I smashed a closet wall and helped my friend Loic to re-rout some electrical wires and build a small cabinet to conceal pipes and an electrical panel.

Smashing Catherine's wall

It is not an easy life we lead. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t find a single person who could muster any sympathy for us returning to the island 2 months early…

Everyone knew why were were leaving so early and so quickly. All of Janice's girlfriends have rallied around her. Many write often to encourage her. A California friend mailed her some oil to anoint the sick that she had blessed by a priest. One loaned her a necklace cross that had been given to her by her grandmother as a child. She made a point of the fact that it was only a loan, so that Janice would be required to return it in person. Some people might have missed the symbolism there but it certainly was not lost on Janice. She was profoundly touched.

America! Ahhhhh, home at last!

Land of opulence, decadence, luxury, mouth watering hamburgers and crappy bread. OK, so you can’t have everything. All done history, driving by chateaus every 5 minutes and being 10 minutes from some of the most beautiful coastline seen anywhere. My only regret was not being able to forge the fireplace doors for the Bee as I had planned to do before leaving. Oh well, next year.

Mr. & Mrs. with 4 eggs in the nest

This is the first time we have experienced life on the river this early in the season. It is much as when we leave in the late fall, being somewhat cold. Our summer place is well insulated so it is not an issue but we soon found that a portion of the island was to be unavailable to us for the next month as we have a pair of geese who have set up their nest on the point.

This just happens to be outside our bedroom window, so we can see Mr. goose chasing off other male suitors and acting as guard goose over his bride which he is romancing. Being sensitive millennium type of Republicans, we are happy to assist these two who are pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.

"I found the end of your phone line"

Another first for us was the fact that upon our arrival, we had no phone service. With the winter storms having pushed south of us most of the winter, the runoff was much lower than usual, resulting in the lowest water levels in 17 years. It is not a problem for us here on the island but several of our neighbors on the US side will have their boating season threatened as they might not have enough water at their docks.

What does this have to do with not having phone service, you ask? Well, with the lower water levels it seems that a small fishing boat ran over our submersible phone cable and cut it in two. Twice! The phone company promptly brought their barge out, found both ends and spliced them back together.

Mandy, again.

Our kids know that they have to do something pretty special to have us brag about them in the Epistle but Mandy has done it again.

Last summer Mandy inquired of her school about beginning her Masters degree during her final undergraduate year, if she completed all of her coursework by February, some 6 months early. The University explained that this was not something that was feasible but as she insisted on an answer they agreed, as it was not going to happen anyway.

She then told us that 'theoretically' she could finish a series of papers, tests and classes by doubling up on some and tripling up on others and be done by February 2010. Since her tuition was paid from August to August she would then be able to start her masters degree while still on her undergraduate tuition. The catch was that she would not be done with her Masters until January next, 6 months after the clock ran out on Mom and Dad footing the bills.

The upside for her was saving a full years tuition and support. Since her accomplishing this was very unlikely to happen, we could have a launched daughter 6 months earlier than planned, allowing for some important upgrades to Janice's airplane. As this had the makings of a win-win situation, we agreed. The long and the short of it was that Mandy finished one impossible requirement after another and lo and behold, against all odds, she pulled it off.

After jumping through all the hoops, she approached the University but was told that unfortunately, the policy had been changed and that they could no longer allow her to start her Masters this year. She begged and pleaded but the answer was a firm NO!
As in, HELL NO!

Mandy did just what they taught her. She poured through the university policy manuals, researched and found some old obscure clause that said in effect that the University had the right to change it's policies but could not implement them during the current academic year. With this is hand, she appealed to the board of Regents....and won.

The day before the decision was officially announced, the head of her law department invited her to her office and gave her some books that she would need to write her thesis for the Masters Program. Tracking in International Law, Mandy will write her Thesis about the treasures damaged or stolen at the Baghdad museum during the invasion of Iraq. Her instructor told her it could serve as the first chapter for her eventual...doctorate thesis.

March, 2010

Chateau Kermezen
6 minutes from the house, it has been
inhabited by the same family since 1438

Bad News

Yes, this is a crappy way to start this month's newsletter but I may as well get it out of the way.

After getting some blood work done and a biopsy, Janice found out that she has breast Cancer, again. I can make this quick because as of now, we know little or nothing as to where we stand. Will she need surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or perhaps all three? We don't know yet as we are a week away from meeting with the specialists. What kind of Cancer? How aggressive is it? Will we have it treated here or fly back to the US?...We don't know yet until we meet with the specialists.

We were 3 days from the start of this years European road trip to 9 different countries when it all came to a screeching halt. We have our Canadian friends Wayne and Barb here visiting with us and we will still drive down to Gordes in the South of France for a week before returning home since we will not be able to meet with the Cancer specialists until then anyway. The rest of the trip, including a week in Vienna that we planned to spend with Mandy had to be canceled so we can get the treatments started.

Van Gogh returns

For years, Janice has enjoyed being the family artist. Much like her mother, she is seriously skilled at drawing and all manner of painting. She has had a few fits and starts at doing more of it but time, opportunity and inclination never quite jelled.

Until now.

We recently meet a few new couples who, like ourselves, happened to be Americans living in the area part time. The fellas are retired from working for the state department, ‘foreign affairs’ kinda stuff. One of the ladies was taking a painting class and Janice needed little encouragement to join her. Now, 3 times a week I become the artist’s widower, having to fend for myself by serving the pre-cooked meals she leaves me and doing all the things I am not allowed to do when she is home.

Like it or not, all the kids will soon be flooded with moms art, reminding me of when we put all their best work on the front of the refrigerator when they were young.

She is having a blast!

Just having fun

In January I mentioned that we had friends here that bottle their own wine. In fact, I took a crack at it and helped with about a hundred bottles. While this is not a monthly event, I took another shot at it again this month with about a hundred more. I did however, fail to mention that this is a premium Bordeaux wine from a ‘classed’ vineyard. They are only allowed to sell a limited amount of that pressing but that does not mean that is all they produce. Au contraire…

They can sell the rest as an unlabeled wine, which about a dozen of us get together and order hundreds of gallons of this ‘red and white nectar of the gods’ and bottle them ourselves for pennies on the dollar. Imagine, a fine Bordeaux wine for the price of a Coke.

My apprenticeship as a cider bottler

The main event this month though was bottling apple cider. I missed the fall harvest and the crush where they mashed about a ton and a half of apples and allowed them to ferment in oak casks for a few months. Last week we gathered at Chateau Kermezen (photo at top of page) over 3 days for the traditional annual event. Again, this is not a huge production but we managed to fill 1600 bottles, so they are not quite goofing around either.

I would be remiss in not mentioning that the current occupants of this Chateau are only the most recent in a long line, as the chateau has been occupied by the same family since 1438. They have a private chapel on the property that has buried every family member within its walls (actually, under the floor) since then. The latest was buried just 3 months ago, a daughter who passed of cancer.

The flood

As we arrived the water level was to the top of
the raceway to the left, with the river to the right

We have friends who live in a mill house that invited us over for lunch. This was a day after a rather big storm you might have heard about that caused a lot of damage in France. Naturally, being a mill house, they live next to a tidal river and as we arrived I mentioned that the water level seemed threateningly high but they assured me that it was fine. Our area has the highest tides in Europe and to complete this perfect storm we had a full moon.

Within minutes the water was flowing over it's banks

10 minutes after this picture was taken,
water poured under the doors

We got through lunch just fine but before we could serve desert, the river had overflowed it's banks and water began to pour under the door. Naturally, we all went into full emergency mode, with the women starting to carry lighter pieces of furniture upstairs, while the guys got shovels and started barricading the bottom of the doors with logs, gravel and dirt to slow the water's flow into the house.

Houston, we have a problem!

More furniture, books and household items were moved upstairs as we attempted to keep up with the flow with a large wet / dry vac. The garage and bathroom were quickly submerged in 6 inches of water being at the low point of the house. The irony is that these folks are the same people who had invited us over for a New Years Eve party last year when her father passed shortly after we left. (The Epistle, January 2009) We are still trying to figure out if we are a curse to them or their rescuing angels. Either way there is always a lot of drama. Next time I am taking a fire extinguisher....just in case.

Wayne & Barbara

A few days ago we had our Canadian friends Wayne and Barbara show up for a two week visit. Having visited last year, they apparently did not get their fill so we were thrilled that they decided to come back. We saved some of the best local spots to visit. These guys are not exactly high maintenance guests as they did the lions share of the cooking and are a breeze to entertain.

Wayne and Barbara
at Chateau La Roche Jagu

We spent a part of the week having some of our french friends meet them and we will spend a week in the South of France at a home exchange we set up in the medieval city of Gordes. We left on that trip this morning so I will have more on it next month.

And the winner is...

Mandy!

For the past several months, daughter Mandy has been participating in regional competitions for wanna-be-lawyers in both client counseling and mock trials. The object is to represent 'clients' and to guide them through the process. It obviously provides great experience in thinking on your feet and emphasizes the importance of knowing your stuff, or at least being able to blow smoke...a skill she developed at a young age.

With real lawyers providing the coaching, she crushed some teams, bamboozled others and outwitted the rest. She will be back in action in Vienna at the end of this month where she is scheduled to represent her school at a mock trial competition.

Having won the national competition, she was recently chosen to represent the Netherlands at the Hong Kong International client counseling competition. It seems ironic that an American student won the top spot to represent the country in this international event. You go, girl!

Oyster harvesting

In the 'what did we do for fun' category for this month, this was a first as we were invited to join a group to harvest oysters. There is no danger of these slimy, stomach turning, revolting things ever crossing my lips, (here they eat them raw) but I know that some people think they are a delicacy, it being the second most expensive item on a restaurants menu. That's probably because they have not tasted buttered popcorn. Ha!

Being the open minded millennium kind of guy that I am, I volunteered to join them and give them away to those with a less developed palate.

A commercial oyster bed

We picked a day with extraordinarily low tides where you can see the commercial oyster farms above ( hundreds of these stadium sized oyster beds line the surrounding shores) The 'seeds' are put into these heavy plastic netted sacks where they will grow for 3-4 years. We on the other hand, pry them off the rocks on the shores where the escapees have clung to the rocks. There is an unlimited supply available without any license requirements.

Every white blotch is an oyster

Projects, projects, projects!

This month was wind down time for projects. I did little odds and ends like building a cabinet with a sink for our master bathroom / dressing room with a matching one on the opposite wall planned for next year. What-dy-a-mean "is that all"? I told you it was wind down time...

This is not SPAM!

Every month I send out our little newsletter to our friends and family via email. Recently I noticed that when I include myself in the recipients list, it occasionally arrives in my SPAM box, so it occurred to me that it might arrive in yours also. If you are not receiving this on the 15th of each month, it is not because I have not sent it to you. If you want to see the blog you simply have to identify my email as not being SPAM and to check your junk mail folder if you are not receiving it. On the other hand, I have done a little research on the subject myself and will ensure that I only send it out to a few people at a time further reducing the chances that it is identified by your ISP as junk mail. If you don’t receive this, just let me know… :( (!)