Visiting P.E.I., August 1-5, 2022

 My second cousin Marian White (my maternal grandmother was her great aunt on her father's side) invited me to visit. For reading during quiet times I brought along my Kindle as well as a book titled Life Is Messy by Matthew Kelly. I also had a brand new iPhone, my first, so I could check e-mails. I'm still getting used to it.

I was met at Charlottetown airport by Marian's nephew Darby White-Myers. After supper at her place in Tracadie Cross, he drove me around to see the old family farm, where new owners have demolished the old house, the cemetery where Marian's parents and Darby's mother are buried, and the apple orchard which Marian's brother Ed has begun.

On Tuesday, I went to Mass at the parish church which is less than 1/10 of a mile from Marian's place. Later, we were joined by her niece Natasha (daughter of her brother Maurice), for a drive to Georgetown at the east end of the island, where we had lunch. In the evening we were joined by Darby and his prospective fiancée Marlee for supper.

On Wednesday, August 3, after breakfast we drove to Tracadie Harbour to a mussel processing plant which is operated by John MacKinnon, a cousin of Marian's on her mother's side. She bought a $10 bag of mussels, which was way more than we could eat. She gave most of them to Ed. Back at Tracadie, we drove down a dirt path to Glenaladale. The estate was founded as a haven for Jacobite Catholic Scottish highlanders who were vicims of the "clearances" following the defeat of "Bonnie Prince Charlie" at Culloden. Eventually, the owners also facilitated the relocation of people from Ireland, among whom were my White ancestors about 1840 (before the potato famine).

In the afternoon we had a visit from cousin Ed and his 14 year old son Levi and their dog. After supper we went to say hello to another of Marian's cousins on her mother's side, Robert Hughes. Robert raises cattle and pigs, and he rents four fields adjacent to the path from Marian's to Glenaladale. He raises fodder there (last year barley, this year hay).

On Thursday at Mass, Marian's aunt Edna Kelly introduced herself to me, having guessed that the stranger would be the cousin from the States whom Marian said would visit. In mid-afternoon we drove to Charlottetown, where Marian had errands. As a hostess gift, I bought a gift certificate from Cow's, a popular ice cream and souvenir shop. I also got myself an oven mitt with an image of a sombrero wearing cow and the legend "Mooey caliente." The we met with Ed, Levi, and Ed's wife Janice for my "gala farewell dinner" — my treat.

Friday morning we went to the airport to pick up an Aussie woman who would stay at Marian's as part of the Workaway program — 5 hours of work 5 days per week in exchange for room and board. Then in the afternoon Marian drove me to the airport, U.S. Customs and Immigration procedures in Montréal were time-consuming and annoying, but I got home with no real difficulties.

A Weekend

Usually my older brother visits me on weekends, arriving Saturday evening about 6:00 and staying either until early Sunday afternoon or until Monday afternoon. (In summer, if he has Race Committee duty, he'll usually arrive after dinner on Friday.) At 9:00 Saturday evening, my younger brother calls from Japan, where he has lived since 1973, and we talk for about an hour.

During my major weekly shopping expedition on February 27, I had bought meat for a pot roast for Saturday dinner, and chicken thighs for Sunday. But by the time I had finished everything else I wanted to do on Saturday, February 2, and went to the kitchen to prepare dinner, I realized that there wasn't enough time to prepare, cook, and eat the pot roast before the phone call from Japan. I substituted the chicken. My brother went back to Boston Sunday afternoon, leaving me with a piece of beef which I had expected to provide dinner for two and leftovers for another meal for me. The best course seemed to be to save it for our dinner on Saturday of this weekend.

Strictly speaking, it's not weekend, but I attended the Boston Symphony concert on Thursday evening. But I blogged about it on Saturday, and that definitely was part of the weekend.

We had tickets for a concert of the Handel and Haydn Society at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, so the plan was for my brother to go back to Boston after the 11:00 Mass on Sunday. I'd stay here and have lunch and meet him at Symphony Hall. But as the weekend arrived, there were predictions of snow and rain Sunday morning, and my brother decided to stay in Boston.

This created two complications. First, he would not be around for the pot roast this weekend, but I couldn't keep it for another week without freezing it, which I didn't want to do. So I cooked it on Saturday to provide my dinner both Saturday and Sunday. Second, I have the H+H tickets here. Usually my brother takes his ticket with him when h leaves for Boston at midday on Sunday. Since he wasn't going to be here, we had to arrange to meet in the lobby of Symphony Hall for me to give him his ticket. That meant that I couldn't decide to stay home if it was still snowing on Sunday afternoon. As it happened, the snow had turned to rain, and the roads were merely wet.

Since this was the weekend we shifted to Daylight Saving Time (Summer Time), I got less sleep than I might have on an ordinary weekend, and I was afraid that my tendency to drowse during afternoon concerts might be strong. I took a brief nap after Mass, and as it happened, the music was interesting enough that I was wide awake for the whole thing. The concert was very enjoyable.

A Wedding in Colorado

A cousin of mine lives a little outside Pueblo, Colorado. She and her husband adopted three Hawaiian children, the youngest of whom is now 27. Last year he and his girlfriend announced their engagement. Each of them as a son and a daughter from a previous relationship, and all the children get along well. My brother is the young man's godfather, and he and I were invited to the wedding. The father of the groom made reservations for us at a motel just off the Interstate.

We flew to Colorado Springs and rented a car to get to Pueblo, arriving at about 10 p.m. the Thursday evening before the wedding. On Friday we did some sightseeing and went to Mass at noon in the Cathedral. Pueblo is an attractive city with an interesting history. We were invited to the rehearsal dinner so we went to the rehearsal and followed the groom's father to the dinner. The dinner — Mexican-style food — was prepared by the parents and other relatives of the couple and held at a small function hall. (Except for my cousin and the Hawaiian children, the families are completely Hispanic.)

During my sightseeing in the afternoon, my camera had run out of space on the memory stick, so after the dinner I went to a Walmart to try to find another memory stick. They didn't have one that would work in my camera, and the clerk suggested I try a Best Buy. By then it was too late for that evening, so I set out Saturday morning. It took some time for me to find a Best Buy, meanwhile looking in several other likely-seeming stores without success. I finally located a Best Buy, and they didn't have what I needed either. By then it was getting close to the time for the wedding, so I went back to the motel to pick up my brother and go to the church. He managed to delete some old images from the memory stick, so I was able to get a few photos.

There is a Hispanic custom involving a beaded cord with two loops called a lazo which is placed over the heads of the couple. I had never seen it before, and thought it was a nice symbol of their being joined. Apart from that, the Mass went abut as usual for a wedding, and it was a joyous occasion. The couple's daughters were flower girls and the sons were ring bearers.

The reception was across town at 5:00, which gave my brother and me time to go to Mass at 4:00 at the cathedral to fulfill our Sunday obligation — which was good since we'd be traveling all day Sunday. The reception was a catered buffet, with a cash bar, and a DJ supplying the music. The food was quite tasty. A while after the first dances, the groom's brother (one of the groomsmen), his children, and his very pregnant girlfriend were at my table. My cousin came by and told the girlfriend, "Now that the wedding's over, you can go into labor whenever you want." And she had the baby a week or so ago. I gather they're also planning to get married, but I hope I'll be able to save some money before they do. These trips aren't cheap. I just realized that I shouldn't be hoping they'll continue cohabiting out of wedlock for my fiscal comfort.

My cousin reported that during her dance with her son she had tears streaming down her face.

My brother and I left the reception before the throwing of the bouquet and of the garter and the cutting of the cake, because we had to get up early to get to Colorado Springs for a fight shortly before 11:00. With a change in Dallas, we arrived in Boston about six hours later.

Although the young people seem to have the typical sexual amorality of their generation, they otherwise seem to take their faith seriously. The bride wanted a Mass for the wedding, which meant they'd be receiving Communion, and she chose scripture reading which were not the usual, obviously taking it very seriously.

All in all, it was a very good trip.

2015/12/27 — Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph

Devotion to the Holy Family seems to have been given its major impetus in the 1600’s by St. François de Laval, the first bishop of New France in what is now Canada. In 1893, Pope Leo XIII instituted the Feast to be held on the Sunday after Epiphany.  And in the reforms after Vatican II, it was moved to the Sunday after Christmas.

When parishes were being merged a dozen or so years ago, often the pastor of the merged parish would choose the name Holy Family for the parish. At the time I thought it was kind of silly to suggest that somehow joining St. Swithin’s and St. Ursula’s made one big happy family. But now I think that however helpful, or not, it may have been to call the new parish Holy Family, it was somehow providential that we got a number of Holy Family parishes.

Our readings tell us something about the ideals of family life but these examples aren’t the main reason I think this feast is so providential for our time. Implicitly, it tells us we need families: families are good; families are important; families are part of God’s plan for us. And the way we get families is through marriage — because family is permanent, and marriage is what makes the relationship of man and woman permanent. And marriage is the place designed for the procreation of children. The scriptures tell us that children are a gift from God, a blessing.

Recent Popes have emphasized the importance of the family, culminating with last October’s Synod on Marriage and the Family, following up on one a year earlier. One reason Pope Francis decided to devote two synods to marriage and the family is that many people today are not getting married and having children — and it’s not just people who are becoming priests and religious. This has been  a concern of the hierarchy for a number of years. It seems that for whatever reason many people are not willing to make that permanent commitment of marriage, which is the image of God — the Holy Trinity, permanently united in love. And it seems that many married people are refraining from having children. Maybe they don’t see children as a gift. Or maybe they think that they have to be able to provide a certain level of material comfort for their children. Of course children are a great responsibility, and prospective parents should be sure they can at least provide the necessities of life: food shelter, clothing, and so forth. But maybe some things parents think they should be able to give their children are really luxuries, not necessities. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were not well off materially. None of us would want to have their first-century standard of living. But they had what they truly needed in the context of their time. Whether we’re single or married, parents or childless, we would all do well to ask ourselves if we really need everything we’d like to have. So this feast is an encouragement for us to think of the value of family as a gift from God.


With that foundation let’s turn to today’s readings.


The feast wants us to see Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as the model for our families. We don’t have much information about their domestic life. Of course it had to include all the routine work of cooking, cleaning, making clothing, and earning a living, but the first thing we see in today’s gospel — Luke 2:41-52 — is that they practiced their faith, including making the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover, with Jesus becoming part of it as soon as he was old enough. Next we notice Mary and Joseph’s anxiety for him when he was lost. And then after Mary and Joseph found him, he returned to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. So there are these three elements of family life: faith and worship, parental love and concern, obedience.

If we look back to the first reading — 1 Samuel 1: 20-22, 24-28 — we see another family that practiced their faith, making pilgrimages and offering sacrifices at the temple at Shiloh. In an ultimate expression of faith Hannah gave Samuel to the Lord, who had a vocation for him. Samuel grew up in the Temple, and became the prophet who anointed David as King of Israel. Mary also sought to understand God's will for her son and pondered the meaning of Jesus’ words to her, just as she pondered the words that were spoken about Jesus by the angel before his birth and by the shepherds when he was born. Parents should seek to understand what God wants for each of their children, who are theirs, but are also God’s. They should be open to God’s plans for their children.

In the responsorial psalm — Ps 84:2-3, 5-6, 9-10 — we think of Samuel's childhood and adolescence as we meditate on the joy of beimg in God's temple. This also prepares us the sympathize with Jesus' desire to stay in is Father's house.

The second reading — 1 John 3:1-2, 21-24 — introduces a couple of points about a wider family. We who are baptized are all God’s adopted children. And so we are all members of this larger family. The faith which should characterize us a children of God is the faith which should animate our personal families. And the love which we should show to spouses, parents, children, and extended family members, should also be given to all the members of God’s family.



Today, the Church invites her members to reflect on the Holy Family. Do we see the Church as a family? Are our individual families active in our faith; are they havens of love, respect, and obedience? Are we seeking to understand and promote God’s plans for us and the other members of our families? If we are single, are we willing to commit ourselves in love to another in holy marriage; if married, are we willing to share our lives and love with children, and give them to the Lord? If we are settled in our state in life, are there ways we should gently encourage others (by word or example) to marry and raise children?

2015/10/04 — 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's first reading and gospel are a large part of the foundation for St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body. He uses the parallel passage in Matthew (Mt 19:3-12), which refers to Genesis 1:27 as well as to today's 2:24. He also uses Matthew 22:30 to develop the theme of celibacy for the kingdom. But much of what he says is based on what we find in today's readings — Genesis 2:18-24 and Mark 10:2-16.


We are created in the image of God in our masculinity and femininity, not just in the spiritual part of our nature. In our bodily actions we can provide a physical image of what God is as pure spirit. Man and woman are for each other and complete each other. Our sexual complementarity is part of being in God's image. God is a communion of persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The divine communion is permanent, committed, loving, and life-giving. In our bodily nature, we are called to similar communion. In our sexuality, the highest form of this communion of persons is marriage, in which man and woman become one flesh in an indissoluble, life-transmitting, loving communion. Marriage is indissoluble because the Trinity is indissoluble.

This all ties in so well with the Synod of Bishops on marriage and the family which opens today in Rome that I'm sure that the date for the Synod was chosen with these passages in mind, if not by the Pope or other people involved in organizing it then by the Holy Spirit guiding them.


Psalm 128 leads us to reflect on marriage and children as a great blessing from God.


The second reading — Hebrews 2:9-11 — reminds the hearers of Jesus' taking on humanity. This he did so that he would be able to save humanity through his suffering (and resurrection).

It is an interesting coincidence(?) that this reading, with its mention of Jesus' becoming "lower than the angels" occurs just after the Church has celebrated the feasts of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael on September 29, and the Guardian Angels on October 2. It is good to remember that God gives angels roles of service  to us.

Recent Doings

It's been a fairly quiet couple of months in my home town and in my life.

I've reconnected with my spiritual director and have met with him in each of the past two months and will meet with him again next week. I'm hoping to go on retreat at the monastery next month.

With summer's arrival, I've already helped run the sailboat races on a couple of Saturdays and a couple of Thursday evenings. I also got to be on a sailboat for a race last Saturday, thanks to a friend who joined the yacht club this year, with me as his second sponsor. He has a regular crew of about a half dozen who did the real work, but I got to help in a couple of non-strenuous ways. The wind was light, and it was a pleasant way to spend a day. One of the people on the boat was a guy who was a race committee boat driver as a teenager about 36 years ago. Back then he was pretty good looking. It was interesting learning about what he had done since then (including being a crew member on America's Cup competitors).

My car was hit by a bus on June 26. I was on the side of the street, getting ready to enter traffic from the parking spot. The street was congested, and the bus swerved to the right and hit my left rear bumper and fender. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but I'm sure the fender will have to be replaced. I hope the bumper can be saved because I've got a couple of stickers on it, and they wouldn't be easy to replace. My collision insurance has a $300 deductible. I hope the appraiser will value the repairs high enough to cover the rest of the cost.

My cousin will be visiting the area from Iowa for about three weeks. Some of the time he'll be at a family vacation place in New Hampshire. When in town he'll stay at my aunt's. We'll probably get together two or three times — maybe take in a baseball game of a summer college student league, maybe go to dinner at the yacht club.

As usual, I went to see the town's Memorial Day parade. There are ceremonies at a park and in the town's major cemetery. I'm glad we have that tradition.

Quotidian Activities

In the past month or so, there have been a few things that may be worth writing home about.


Birthday/Anniversary  My brother's wedding anniversary is also his wife's birthday. I procrastinated on sending gifts until the day before. At that point I e-mailed my brother and asked him to get something for her and something for them and bill me via pay-pal. He cooperated, and it worked out pretty well. I'd have liked to do a next day delivery order on amazon, but the Japanese site is, unsurprisingly, in Japanese, and I don't think they take American credit cards. I recall trying once. I found something by following pictures, but I couldn't complete the transaction. So this was better. Maybe sometime I'll learn to shop early enough.


Taxes  For a long time, I used to file my tax returns early — meaning before noon on the day they were due. This year I filed super early — the evening before the due date — using an on line filing system. Sometimes I've owed the feds some money, but never the state. This year, I owed money to both. I guess I'll have to have them take more out of my IRA when I take my next distribution, or else make estimated tax payments.


Car  I have a 1997 Toyota Camry which has a little over 88,000 miles on it. Last year, the mufflers got holes in them, and it became loud, even getting louder as time went on. Last week, I finally took it to a muffler repair shop, where they also found work that needed to be done on the steering and suspension and on the brakes. They also changed the oil and some other fluids and performed the overdue state safety inspection (which it could not have passed before I replaced the exhaust system). Total price, including sales tax on the parts, was $3,000.07. Of that, something over $1,200 was for labor. Since the car was in the shop about five hours, that means they're getting over $240/hr. Nice work if you can get it. Apparently, the labor costs are set by the company — a large chain — for each job performed, since the invoice gives identical amounts for several of the jobs.

It was a higher price than I had anticipated, but then I've been neglecting things for some time, and if this lets me keep the car on the road for another 17 years, that's less than $200 per year. Besides, I put it on my credit card, so it didn't actually cost me anything.


Restaurant  With the end of the concert season, my season for dining at Scollay Square also comes to an end. So last Friday I told them I probably won't be back until October. Wendy the waitress is my favorite since Seth shifted to bartending, and I was at one of her tables. Before I left, she told me that she might get a job in her field of study, which has to do with sustainability and interior design.Of course I wish her well, but I do like having waiters who, when they realize I'm something of a regular, become friendly. So if she stops working there on Fridays, I'll miss her.

There was a party of three at a nearby table and Wendy told me that they were involved in some sort of convention that was going on in Boston. It turns out it was something called Q Talks. The older man in the party was the pastor of the church where it was mostly happening, Tremont Temple, and his wife and son were with him. Wendy told them something about me, and the pastor came over and introduced himself, and I told him something about myself. I learned that he's been involved in high-level ecumenical dialogue as one of the evangelical representatives who have met with Cardinal Kasper and the Vatican agency for promoting Christian unity. I gather that this year's Q Talks became somewhat controversial in church circles because they had panels on the church and gay people which included some participants who favor gay marriage.

As I was finishing my dinner a couple of nice-looking guys were seated at the table beside me. I heard them discussing what they would have, and they didn't seem to be settling on things, so I recommended the miso glazed salmon, which is my favorite dish on the menu. They both ordered it. Unfortunately, I had to leave for the concert before theirs arrived, so I'm not sure how they liked it. But if they like salmon, it's hard to imagine that they wouldn't have liked it a lot.

Christmas (so far) and New Year's Day (with pictures)

As I mentioned in my previous post, my big brother arrived on the evening of December 23 to spend the holidays with me, returning to Boston on January 2. Then he came here for his usual weekend visit, arriving Saturday evening, January 3, and leaving after lunch today (Sunday). It's too bad I don't feel close to him. It could be fun if we were good friends. but even when he's here, we mostly keep to ourselves.

I had put the window candles in place on December 14 (a bit earlier than I usually do), and on Christmas Eve I put a quilt with a Christmas design on one door and a wreath on another one and set out a small Nativity scene. I also put the Christmas tree on the mantel in the living room. They'll probably stay until next Sunday, the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, which is the official end of Christmastide in the Catholic Church.

The quilt.

Nativity scene.

Christmas tree. We haven't had a full sized tree since my mother died ten years ago. The expense and effort of getting one, decorating it, and then taking it down just seem too much when only the two of us are here, much as I like the way it looked.

Clicking on the pictures should enlarge them.

For Christmas, we exchanged a couple of presents, and there were gifts from our brother and s-i-l in Japan. He gave me a Red Sox wall calendar, as usual, two potholders with music-related designs, and some metal cubes to put in the freezer and use to chill drinks without diluting them. While I think my cocktails are improved by having ice melt in them (up to a point, anyway), the metal cubes could be very useful for insufficiently chilled white wine and soft drinks and maybe substitute for some of the ice in cocktails. I gave him the perennial 12 pack of beer and something or other else (if I remember, I'll tell you). From Japan came long underwear (my request) towels, cherry flavored Dijon mustard, and the book The Lost Art of Finding Our Way, by John Edward Huth. The dust jacket blurb begins, "Long before GPS, Google Earth, and global transit, humans traveled vast distances using only environmental clues and simple instruments. John Huth asks what is lost when modern technology substitutes for our innate capacity to find our way." It sounds fascinating; I'll probably make it my table reading after my current book, The Piano Shop on the Left Bank.

One of my brother's gifts from the Japanese kinfolk was the book Christendom Destroyed: Europe 1517 - 1648, by Mark Greengrass, Emeritus Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Sheffield. The dust jacket has the heading "The revolutionary emergence of a divided Europe in the shadow of Christendom's collapse," and the following blurb begins, "This latest addition to the landmark Penguin History of Europe series is a fascinating study of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century western Europe and the dramatic changes that led to the collapse of Christendom and established the geographical and political frameworks of western Europe as we know it." A few days ago he said he had started reading it, but found it too scattered, not following a strict timeline but jumping chronologically as themes and concepts are developed. So he's leaving it here. I'm looking forward to reading it for two reasons. One is that it may be an interesting companion to Brad Gregory's The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society. The other is that it can be an interesting thing to read in the run-up to the 400th anniversary of Luther's 95 theses. I also have Mark Noll's book, Is the Reformation Over? 

With those two books, I've got a good deal of good reading to look forward to.

On Christmas Eve I prepared a "Feast of the Two Fishes," as a nod to the southern Italian tradition of the Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes. I sautéed shrimp and scallops with garlic in a combination of olive oil and butter, and accompanied it with tricolor rotini with alfredo sauce from a jar, and salad. While we were eating it, my brother said, "This is a better dinner than we will have tomorrow [when we were to go to our aunt's]." I was amazed and very pleased, of course.

The dinner on Christmas was roast boneless leg of lamb with potatoes, squash, green beans, mint jelly, and gravy, preceded by cheese and crackers and a nice cream cheese dip, and followed by pumpkin and pecan pies. It was a good meal, but I don't think my brother changed his opinion about which meal was the better. There were six of us there, and while it wasn't a high-spirited gathering, it was a pleasant group to be part of for the five hours we were there.

Continuing the food theme — on the 26th I decided to have a rib roast of beef, something I almost never do. Unfortunately, at the end of the 15-20 minutes at very high temperature, instead of turning the oven down to cooking temperature for the remaining time, I inadvertently turned it off. By the time I noticed my mistake, it was 1 ½ hours later, and dinner was delayed accordingly. Saturday evening we had lobster, Sunday leftover beef. Monday we went to a restaurant, and Tuesday we had leftovers from the restaurant. Unfortunately, the restaurant closed on New Year's Eve. I had been in business for a couple of years. I rarely eat in restaurants other than before concerts and plays in Boston, but this was a good one, and I enjoyed going there for birthdays and similar occasions. Apparently there are too many restaurants around. A lot have come and gone over the years, and this one just never quite caught on, never had the success its quality deserved. Wednesday was similar to Christmas Eve but with just shrimp, no scallops. I wasn't able to find a duck for New Year's Day, so we had to settle for lamb chops. Friday I was on my own and had my familiar baked stuffed haddock. Last night, in honor of Epiphany, I cooked another rib roast, getting the oven temperatures right this time. It came out well, but we ate less than half of it. I had thought when I bough it that my brother might stay through this evening and we could again enjoy leftovers.

At this point, I have about four pounds of leftover roast beef as well as a lobster body, some pork casserole from the Sunday before Christmas, and still some leftover pasta from the restaurant. I can combine the lobster and pasta into a soup for lunch one day, eat the pork thing today for supper, and have leftover beef for three weekday dinners. That will probably still leave one or two meals' worth of beef for later on. It looks as if I won't be spending much for food this week.

The only other event worth mentioning is that we were invited to have eggnog and cookies on Tuesday evening December 30 at the home of the couple who invite us to Thanksgiving dinner. There were eight people there altogether, and it was fairly quiet (we're all over 70) but pleasant company. It's a good thing the eggnog wasn't too strongly alcoholic, since I had to drive home. Among the edibles was some stollen, which was pretty good. Later, it occurred to me that one could speak of the event as "stollen moments."

New Year's eve we stayed home. I think my brother was in bed before midnight (he isn't always), and I was here at my computer when 2015 hit, so I calmly said "Happy New Year." As good Catholics, we went to Mass on January 1 — nothing special after that.

My brother never helps with meal preparation — which is one reason I wanted to go to the restaurant one evening: preparing a full dinner for both of us day after day somehow feels like more of an effort than preparing one for myself on weekdays and for both of us on weekends. But he was very good about doing the dishes after every dinner. Sometimes I'd come to help dry them.

Well, it wasn't a spectacular time really, but with the two gatherings, as well as my brother's presence and the sparse decorations, it was something different from the weekly routines.

Merry Christmas

The title nearly says it all. I hope all readers will have a very merry Christmastide and a truly Happy New Year.

For me, it will be fairly busy for the next two days, right now washing shirts, then helping out around church this afternoon, at midnight, and in the morning, last minute food shopping today (held off for the senior discount), to aunt's for Christmas dinner. Then it's a bit more relaxed, although sometime before the end of next week I've got to trek in to Boston to renew my geezer card for the discounted subway fare.

I put the candles in the windows a couple of weeks ago, but only this morning got around to putting the wreath on one door and the Christmas tree quilt on another, the nativity  scene on the TV, the Christmas tree on the mantel and the olive wood "Joy to the World" cutout in the dining room window. There's also a small wood nativity scene to go somewhere, maybe my prayer room.

Big bro arrived last evening and will stay "for the duration," i.e., until January 2, except for a couple of day trips to Boston to check his mail. So I'll be cooking for two (without mushrooms, except on the side, or peas) and eating for one. Tonight it will either be sautéed shrimp with pasta and alfredo sauce or baked stuffed haddock. I've got a rib roast for Friday, and there should be leftovers for another meal. Saturday or Sunday I'll probably have lobsters. After that, I don't know — maybe a duck for New Year's Eve or Day.

It won't be a white Christmas. It's misty and drizzly right now. Snow would be beautiful, but the warmer temperatures are also welcome, and I'm sure it will feel Christmasy after I've gone to Mass.

So, once more, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Time to Remember the Month of September

A couple of days ago I looked at the list of my posts on this blog, and I was amazed to see that I haven't posted anything since September 2. So it's about time for an update.

My sister-in-law came for a visit, beginning on Wednesday, September 3. My brother met her at the airport and drove her out here. As it happened, Donald Teeters, a fairly well-known conductor in this area, had recently died, and his funeral was that evening. He had taught her conducting when she was at New England Conservatory, and had visited her school and was a guest in her home one time when he visited Japan. So she wanted to go to the funeral. I brought her to the subway and helped her figure out how to get to her destination. One of her classmates, who lives in eastern Massachusetts, played the organ at the funeral, and gave her a ride home. I still hadn't had my dinner when she got back, so I  shared with her. The gala welcoming dinner of steak was postponed, as was the plan, to Thursday evening.

On Friday, she wanted to visit her organ teacher from the conservatory. The teacher now lives in an assisted living facility about a 50 minute drive from here. I was tied up when she needed to go, so my brother drove her there. About 2 ½ hours later, I went to bring her back. I took a route back home through an area which has very little traffic — country roads through the woods. But along the way there was an ice cream stand, and we each had some, which was refreshing, since the day was hot. That evening it was time for the gala farewell dinner — boiled lobster, steamed mussels, corn on the cob, sponge cake with fruit and whipped cream.

On Saturday morning I brought her to South Station in Boston so she could take the express train to New York where she spent several days visiting my nephew. He and his girlfriend have moved in together, and one feature of the visit was my sister meeting the girlfriend's mother. I understand they got along well. In the olden days, the next step would be for the kids to get married. I hope they will, but nobody's said anything about. Somebody's got to transmit those Naturgesetz family genes to the next generation.


The next big event was my "annual" check-up with my primary care physician on the 11th. He couldn't find anything wrong, except for a bit of ringworm near my right nipple — Gold Bond powder should eventually clear it up. He conducts the exam very conversationally, and of course, I like the chance to be naked with someone pleasant like him. I don't remember other doctors checking for testicular cancer, but he does, and I was surprised at how gently he felt my testicles on both visits — my previous doctor retired and this was my second time with this doctor.


My last Race Committee assignment was on Saturday the 13th. It was a fairly windy day with choppy seas. We had a problem with the mechanical winch which hauls up the anchor. Fortunately, we discovered it early in the day, and by the time we needed to haul up the anchor, the boy who drives the boat and shoots the signal cannons had figured out how to get it working.


The following Thursday, the concert season began for me with the opening night of the Boston Symphony, followed on Friday with a concert by the Boston Artists Ensemble at Salem's historic Hamilton Hall. If you follow the link and then go to "Community" and then to "Lectures" you can read about a series that my mother used to attend for many years. I'm happy to know that they still serve bouillon.


I was invited to dinner with friends on Saturday and then there were two events on Sunday afternoon. First was the funeral of a long-time sailor and member of the yacht club — also an avid and accomplished skier. After the service, the family had a reception at the yacht club. Coincidentally, when I was at the Hamilton Hall website just now, the widow was in the picture at the top of the "Community" page. She's the one on the right. Before that reception was over, I had to go to the other end of the club building to join an "Octoberfest" for the race Committee. Many years ago, I used to bring German Oktoberfest beer and German style cold cuts out to the Race Committee boat for the last event, which fell within Oktoberfest in the old country. Circumstances changed, and it didn't work anymore, but people kept asking for me to revive it. Finally this year, club management put on an event ashore, with advice from me as to what it should include (roast chicken, bratwurst, weisswurst, sauerkraut, potato salad, and Oktoberfest beer from Munich). So it was actually more like the real thing than what I could do on a boat.


The rest of the month was fairly routine. There is a thirty year old guy I've known for a dozen or more years. Last winter he was hospitalized for depression, and now he's moved back to his parents' home. I know he's interested in music, so I thought it might be helpful for him too get out to some of the concerts I go to, so I've given him a list of everything I have planned over the season (basically through April) and said if there are any he'd like to go to, just let me know. We'll see if anything ever comes of it. He mentioned, when I gave him the list, that he especially likes baroque music, which is largely lacking in the concerts I attend. I'll have to keep alert for possibilities from Boston Baroque and the Boston Early Music Festival.

My Trip to PEI, August 2014 — Part 3: End of Visit & Going Home

Marian had planned to take the young nephew to a show in Crapaud titled "The Mermaid and the Droplets." It was a combination of dance and offstage voicing presenting the concept of the water cycle(s) — water to vapor to clouds to rain, rivers, oceans, underground aquifers. The concept came from a 4th grade class, and this was the last show of the second summer of performances. It was scheduled for 1:00, and since it was on the way to the bridge, I decided to go along.

So after Mass, I packed, while Marian had some activity to go to. We were to meet at Ed's at noon to pick up the nephew and head off to Crapaud. On the way to Ed's I stopped to fill up my gas tank. Then I thought of going downtown to get a hostess gift for Ed's wife Janice, but time was a bit tight, so I went straight to Ed's, arriving about 11:50. Marian was ready to leave immediately, because she was worried that the show would sell out (it didn't). It was performed by teenagers and was actually pretty good.

When the show was over, I left for Fredericton, NB — about a 3 hour drive. To prevent drowsiness, I stopped for a cola in Moncton, and got to Fredericton about 5:30. It's really a charming little city, and I recommend a visit to anyone traveling in New Brunswick. I decided to stay in the fancy hotel downtown. The exterior has been renovated and the lobby is modern, but the corridors are old-fashioned elegant, which I liked a lot.

On Friday, I got under way about 10:00 and reached the border about 11:15 (10:15 Eastern Time). I refueled in Bangor, had lunch at a McDonalds in Waterville, and as on Thursday, stopped for some caffeine and a break — in Kittery, ME. It didn't look practicable to get right back on Rte. I-95, so I drove via Rte. 1 across to Portsmouth, NH, and through the city to get back on the superhighway. Then I got home without further stops or incident, arriving home about 4:45. With the time zone difference, I had been on the road slightly under 8 hours (including breaks) and was pretty frazzled. Maybe that's why I forgot to put water in the pot when I started steaming the salmon. Eventually I realized, and put water in the pot for the second half of the cooking time. It was still good, if a little drier than usual.

There was a lot of time in transit for the actual time on the Island, and it ended up costing more for gas and food and lodging than I had imagined, but it was good to see the family and the shows. So I'm glad I made the trip, and I'd have liked to spend more time there if I hadn't had to get back for Race Committee duty.

My Trip to PEI, August 2014 — Part 2: Two Days on the Island

Marian likes to plan activities, and she had several items planned for my visit. She knew that I'd like to go to Mass, so she informed me that there would be Mass in the church just up the street on Tuesday and Thursday at 9:00 am. Shee didn't go to it, but I did. After her yoga class we headed off to her mother's apartment (assisted living?). The mother is 90ish, sometimes uses a walker, and is still in excellent shape mentally. Marian prepared a nice lunch for us. As we were finishing, a brother of hers showed up for a visit and ate the leftovers that could have been the mother's lunch the next day.

Next we visited the graveyard where her father and other ancestors are buried, picked raspberries (2 pints at $3.00 each, which I paid for since she was short of cash), and got a half gallon of ice cream for the berries (again I paid). I also bought 500g of Island honey to bring home. Back at her house, I heard an interview on the radio with two of the actors in the Watermark Theatre Company of North Rustico's production of "The Lion in Winter," and decided to go. Marian had wanted to have me go with her to Dalvay-by-the-Sea to enjoy some of their sticky date pudding. By rushing through supper, we were able to leave in time to get to Dalvay and have the pudding — very tasty — pick up a friend of hers in Rustico, and get to the theatre in good time for the show. The friend's birthday was the next day, so Marian paid for his ticket as a present, while I picked up our two. I thought the show was well acted, but the play never explained why the 12th century Plantagenets were constantly intriguing against one another as the author imagines them. Maybe it's just the desire of each to be in control. One interesting bit was the indication of a homosexual liaison between Richard Lionheart and the King Philip of France, when Philip was 15 (a few years before the action of the play).

On Wednesday she planned for me to visit her Aunt Mary's widower at a seniors' home in the morning and to meet her in mid-afternoon for a visit to one of Mary's lifelong friends. (It had been Mary who had kept in contact with my mother for many years and had supplied our address to Marian just before Mom died.) The visits both went well. Mary's husband was drowsy and kept nodding off, but seemed happy to have my visit. The friend was even sharper than Marian's mother, and had a lot of reminiscences of history of our family and friends.

Between those visits, I went to Mass at St. Dunstan's Basilica, bought a ticket for "1864: The Tall Hat Chronicles," had a lunch of fish and chips, and bought a couple of souvenir magnets at Province House, where the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 took place. After the visit with the family friend, I was invited to dinner at Cousin Ed's. He's the one whom I just missed seeing the evening I arrived. So I had a nice visit with him and his wife and their 6-year-old son.

After dinner, I went to the theater for "1864: The Tall Hat Chronicles," (links to video and audio) which was, surprisingly, the only thing I could find which directly dealt with the 1864 conference — and it did so in a zany and often risqué manner. It was really funny. The show began at 9:00 p.m., and when it was over shortly after 11:00 it was raining. I checked the map to be sure how to get to the route back to Marian's. As I drove through the rain in the dark, I was amazed at how blurry everything was. After I missed a turn about ½ mile from Marian's, I checked the map again, and as I did so I realized that I had been wearing my reading glasses. Things became much clearer once I changed to my driving glasses.


Still to come: Thursday on the Island, and then going home.

My Trip to PEI, August 2014 — Part 1: Getting There

I've posted earlier about visiting the cousins on Prince Edward Island. (Click on the label PEI to see earlier posts.) It's been several years since I went there, but this year the Province is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference, which the was first step toward confederation: the unification of Canada, which until then had been separate colonies. I figured there would be activities, exhibits, and the like that would be worth seeing. It turned out there wasn't much alone those lines, but there were various performances in various venues in celebration of the event.

The dates of August 4-8 were open on my calendar, so I asked my cousin Marian, my principal contact with the family, if it would be a good time for me to visit, and she said nobody else had reserved the time. She is very hospitable, and will pack relatives and friends into her house very willingly. She also gladly takes care of nephews and nieces when their parents need someone to look after them for a while.

It's something over a 600 mile drive to her place, and I decided to drive to Bangor — about ⅓ of the distance — on Sunday, and do the rest of the drive on Monday. It worked out pretty well, except I missed a turn in Charlottetown (because I thought I needed to be taking the route from C'town to the west, but I needed to go eastbound — I always think east and west on the Island are the opposite of what they are), and then I missed another turn near her place. So I only got there a couple of minutes before she had to leave for a nearby event, and it turned out I had just missed seeing the cousin whose sons I stayed with in 2010. He was taking his third son and a nephew to a soccer match. Marian had prepared a pot of mussels for me and an old friend of hers who was visiting the Island and staying a few miles away. She told me to eat half of them, and I had all I wanted, along with some rolls and butter. There were leftovers after the friend and I had all we wanted.

Christmas and Other Doings

Our 90+ year old aunt invited my brother and me for Christmas dinner, as she has done for several years. The party consisted of a friend/colleague of hers (who handled the cooking) and two other regulars: a husband and wife (who has a bit of Alzheimers). We arrived at about 3:00 and had pleasant conversation over wine and cheese until dinner was ready at about 5:00. The main dish was a boneless roast leg of lamb — very tasty. Desserts were pumpkin, mince, and pecan (the friend is from Oklahoma) pies. The only one I think I like is pumpkin, but I decided to have a sliver of each and was surprised to find I actually found the mince and the pecan pleasant. After dinner, back to the living room. I was about to suggest it was time to go home when two other friends of my aunt's showed up. So we had to stay a while in order to avoid seeming to have left on account of their arrival. Got home just after 9:00.

The next day, we had lamb chops for dinner. I had bought them a few days earlier, figuring that we'd have turkey, as usual, at my aunt's. It's probably the first time in my life I've had lamb two days in a row, except as leftovers. But I like lamb, so I didn't mind. It just isn't something I have very often.

Christmas gifts. I gave my big brother a 12-pack of beer, which is customary, and a book of sudoku puzzles. I sent scarves to my kid brother and sister-in-law. Big bro gave me a wall calendar, which is customary, and a phone apparatus with remote handsets, which I needed to replace one whose battery doesn't take a full charge. Kid bro and s-i-l sent a book*, a cd of Gregorian Chant from a group she is involved with, and "from the cats" a box of Japanese rice crackers (senbei).

* The book looks pretty interesting. It's My Promised Land, by Ari Shavit. It's his personal perspective on Zionism and Israeli history. I've only glanced at it, but it seems that he sees both good things and serious mistakes in the history. I'm planning to make it my table reading after I finish my current book, The Signal and the Noise, by Nate Silver. (You can google the books if you want to know more about them.)

Brother, food. My brother, who visits every weekend when he isn't traveling, got here Christmas Eve and stayed through New Year's Day. Then he came back for this weekend. In addition to the lamb chops, we enjoyed baked stuffed haddock, dinner at a nice restaurant, ribeye steaks, my version of shrimp scampi, steamed salmon, duck (must make duck soup soon), lobster, and I forget what all else. Today, I did spambled egg muffins for breakfast (I like to have it once or twice a year), and tonight I'll have another ribeye steak (bro is back in Boston) for Twelfth night. Except for the holidays and Sundays my brother makes his own breakfasts, and he generally makes himself a sandwich for lunch, so I only have to do the dinners.

Storm. The big storm came through on Thursday and Friday, but it only gave us about a foot of snow. The roads were very slippery on Thursday. Friday, after it stopped, there was beautiful white packed powder on the streets, which made a nice crunching sound under the tires. On Saturday, the ice and salt began to turn it into brown slush. I managed to get a bit of recreational shoveling in, but my plowman took care of the driveway and his assistant shoveled to the side door; and my good neighbor brought his snowblower and took care of the sidewalks and the walk to my front door. The wind had kept half of the walk to the garage clear, and I handled the rest with almost no effort.

Nick. In mid-December I learned that a guy in his late twenties — whom I've had a very mild crush on for several years — was hospitalized for depression. I never would have suspected he was depressed, but then he lives out of town so I don't see much of him. I happened to notice him on Facebook and sent a friend request, which he accepted. I then suggested he might like to go to a concert or play with me sometime. He expressed interest in symphony, and I think we may go to a concert in March.

Spiritual Direction. My spiritual director retired and moved to Maine a few months ago. Eventually he made arrangements to use a rectory in the area for sessions with me and with a couple of other directees. But on both occasions when he has scheduled meetings, snowsrtorms have been predicted, so he hasn't been able to come. I hope I'll have something good to talk about (i.e., some progress in some regard) by the time we get together again.

Plans for Thanksgiving

This year the couple who invited me and my brother to their place for Thanksgiving in earlier years are going to their children's home out of state. So I'll be preparing Thanksgiving dinner. I've invited a single guy from church who has also been a guest at the other couple's Thanksgiving dinner.

I'll start the day by going to Mass at my parish church. Then I'll mostly be involved with preparing and setting up for the dinner.

First I'll prepare the bread stuffing (Pepperidge Farm mix, with some sauteed celery and onion added). When that's ready it goes into the bird and the bird goes into the oven. The giblets will cook in a double boiler. Then there should be time to set out mixed nuts and cheese and crackers, and maybe tortilla chips and dip, for the social hour. I'll peel and boil some potatoes and mash them with milk, a little butter and dried parsley. Hubbard squash will be peeled, cut up, boiled and then mashed with butter, honey, and nutmeg. When the turkey's done, I'll make gravy from the pan drippings, flour, the cooking water from the veggies and the giblets, with a bit of soy sauce, Tabasco, mild paprika, Bell's Poultry Seasoning, etc. (Since my brother doesn't eat giblets, I'll have them available on the side, rather than chopping them into the gravy) We'll also have cranberry sauce, which I'll make this evening; and I got some green olives stuffed with pimiento to go with celery on a relish plate (first time in years for the relish plate). For dessert it will be pumpkin pie and mince pie, with whipped cream to accompany the former and cheddar cheese for either; thin mints and chocolates will also be offered. I'll bake the pies this evening.

When I was a boy, all of the above would be part of the dinner. It would also have included creamed onions, sweet potatoes, steamed puddings with custard sauce and hard sauce, sometimes scalloped oysters, and sometimes potato stuffing in addition to the bread. You'll notice there are no green beans, no salad, in fact no green vegetables of any sort other than the relish plate. That's the tradition I learned, and I'm sticking with it. You can have your green vegetables 363 days per year, but not on Thanksgiving or Christmas.

To accompany it, I have several kinds of beer, whiskey, and rum for the social hour and merlot and Graves wines for the dinner. There will be coffee to go with dessert.

In addition to what I do this evening, I'll probably spend most of the time from 10:00 to 2:00 preparing the meal, 2:00 to 4:00 enjoying it, and 4:00 to 5:00 putting away leftovers and helping with the clean-up. Mostly we'll use the fancy china (parents' wedding gifts) and silver — not dishwasher safe. Perhaps we'll call the cousins in Colorado in the evening, after the guest has left. If anybody wants supper, I recommend another piece of pie.

I guess it's about time to leave the computer and start cooking.

Catching up

On October 17 I went to a symphony concert, and the following evening I trekked in to Boston again, for a show called "Baritones Unbound." It's a brief look at the history of the baritone voice, especially after it was identified as such in the early 19th Century, and it was having its first run anywhere. It was basically a fun evening — pure entertainment. Apparently it hadn't been booked anywhere else as of when I saw it, but the Three Baritones are hoping to be signed elsewhere. So keep your eyes on the entertainment listings; if you notice it, I think you'll like it.

Over the weekend, I came down with a cold. On Monday morning, I had almost no voice. But there was gradual improvement. I was able to take a visiting cousin to dinner at Scollay Square before I went to symphony on the 24th. She didn't join me for the concert, but the "absolutely gorgeous young man" I wrote about in my previous post was at Symphony Hall that evening — with another guy who wasn't nearly so gorgeous. We happened to meet in the corridor after the concert was ended. It was his companion's first time in Symphony Hall and his first time hearing Mahler's "Lied von der Erde" live. They were both enthusiastic. I wasn't, but I refrained from negative comments. Having heard his name for the third time, I actually remembered it long enough to look him up on social media. It turns out his paternal grandmother was Japanese. (I hadn't noticed anything semi-oriental-looking about his father in pictures — dad's also on social media.) He was actually in Japan a few years ago on some study-abroad program when grandma died, and he described going to the funeral. In case he shows up again, I think I'll call him G.

The following evening, I went to Scollay Square again, before another HMA concert. I had the same waitress as the previous evening, and she recognized me. She was good, but I was sorry not to see Wendy or Blake, the waitress and waiter I had liked last spring, on either visit. With my cold still lingering, I decided to leave before the second half of the concert.

This week, the cold has continued to fade away. Wednesday was another evening at the theater, for "The Power of Duff," about a TV newscaster in Rochester who begins to pray at the end of the news programs after his father dies. Some interesting things happen, but mostly the play is about his attempts to connect with people — especially his estranged wife and alienated 15 year old son — after a lifetime of being self-absorbed. There is some value to the story, and the play has its good moments, but the characters and the action often seem contrived. It was nice to hear some of the Red Sox final game of the World Series in my car on my way home and to see the last inning on my TV after I got home.

Last night was another symphony evening. I decided to escape Hallowe'en trick-or-treaters by having dinner in Boston before the concert. There is a local chain called Petit Robert. They describe themselves as French-style bistros. The menu varies slightly from location to location, but both the ones I've visited offer some things that are commonplace in American restaurants and some things you don't see regularly on this side of the Atlantic. Before "Baritones Unbound" I went to the Petit Robert Central and had oysters and coquilles St. Jacques. The latter is not available everywhere in America, and it was quite enjoyable. The waiter was easy to look at and properly attentive. This week I went to the Petit Robert Columbus Ave. and enjoyed a tasty foie gras appetizer and a very good tripe entree (neither of which was on the PRCentral menu, although Central had a different style of foie gras). I really like being able to get these things that aren't on most American menus, especially the organ meats, and I'm looking forward to going to one or the other before future plays or concerts.

Looking forward, I'll be seeing "Waiting for Godot" for the first time next week, in a performance by an Irish company called the Gare St. Lazare Players. Symphony Thursday and the following two Thursdays. Harvard Musical Association on Friday the 8th. My parish has their Mass of Remembrance, especially for those who have died in the past year, on Saturday at 4:00, followed by Italian Night at 5:00. Then there is an end-of-season Race Committee party at 6:00.

A Visit from Family Members; Update on Updates

A Visit from Family Members  My sister-in-law arrived from Japan on Friday for a visit through Wednesday morning. My big brother (net her husband) met her at the airport. I hadn't completed all the tidying up I had had in mind, and she began to do some housecleaning — very embarrassingOn Sunday her son (my nephew) and his girlfriend arrived by train from New York. Although she calls herself a vegetarian, she said she would like to have lobster along with the rest of us, and she enjoyed it. She calls herself "a chill vegetarian," and apparently her motive is health, not an ethical concern about eating meat. They'll also be heading out on Wednesday morning. My brother will take them to train station and airport.

It's kinda fun having them here. Last evening, we played "Clue" — first time for me in 30-40 yrs.

With three additional people sharing the upstairs bathroom, I realized I needed a way to get the hot, humid air out of the room. I took the window fan from my room and put it in the bathroom window as an exhaust fan, plugged into the light by the sunk. When the light's on, so is the fan. Then I realized that it strained a bit when the door was closed, so I lowered the upper sash, so as the fan pushes the moist air out at the lower level, cooler air comes in at the upper level to replace it. (When I'm alone upstairs, of course, I can just leave the door open.


Update on Updates  My brother in Japan suggested that my nephew could help with the computer woes I talked about in my previous post. Meanwhile, once I finally got the printer working, I was annoyed to see nothing giving me the options to print only one or a limited number of pages of a multi-page document. Finally this morning, encouraged by a cryptic reference in the printer User's Guide, I decided to see what happened on an unlabeled button with a down arrow in the print dialogue box. That opened a larger box giving me the options which used to be in the first box that appeared. Does somebody think it's an improvement to have to jump through one more hoop to have those options available? Well, at least I solved that problem.

The Google/Safari problem remained. And for that I asked my nephew to help. An option on the Mac menu offers Software Updates. My nephew knew about that and suggested going there. Most of the updates were for applications I don't use, and there was nothing about Safari. But there was one for a general OS uupgrade. It had crossed my mind that it might help, but I wouldn't have tried it. He thought we should, so we did. When it was finished, I had a newer version of the Mac OS X 6, and it was able to run the standard format of gmail and let me access google+ and my g calendar in all its colorful splendor.

So for now I'm happy with the state of my computer and printer.

Japan Diary, Part Five

June 5 & 6  Wednesday was trash day. Stuff had to be at curbside for pickup by 7:30, so it was my first order of business after waking up at about 5:00 a.m.. In mid-morning I went food shopping at the stores nearest to the house. Had breakfast when I got home, watered and misted the plants*, brushed the cats, was surprised when Minka licked my hand. In mid-afternoon, I had lunch, worked sudoku and crossword puzzles in the newspapers.

*Yang Yang decided it was a good idea to drink the water in the dishes under the plants. I decided it wasn't. When I picked him up and was carrying him to his water dish, he struggled and scratched my arm.

From about 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., I took a nap, then watched some baseball on TV. Unlike my country, they don't have baseball games on TV every day. It seems that every Japanese major league team has one or two American players. A noticeable difference in crowd behavior is that when each team is at bat, there are numbers of fans wearing team colors who sing the team pep song. So there's no quiet time (except maybe between innings and halves of innings).

I got to dinner about midnight.

Cod, sauteed peppers and mushrooms, salad, black coffee (in pot), manhattan, white wine.

Thursday morning, having gone to bed at about 2:30, I was awakened at about 5:00 to feed the cats. I got up at about 6:00, and Yang Yang paid a brief visit at about 6:30.

At about 7:30 I went out to take a walk along the pedestrian promenade.

A view of a side street across Shiroyama Dori (the street the promenade parallels) from the promenade.

Near the farthest point of my walk, perhaps a mile from the point where I started.

I find it a little surprising that they put it in English. This is in an area where I think there are very few English speakers, and few of them who would be unable to handle the Japanese.

A tile embedded in the promenade. This looks like an old map of the area.

Hollyhock.

I saw a couple of maps which showed a fairly direct route from near the annex back to the house via regular roads, so I decided to try it. At one point I became uncertain which way to go, but I knew that going right would either get me where I wanted to go or back to the promenade. Eventually I arrived at an intersection a couple of blocks from my brother's house and got back to the house just after 9:00. After that it was a relaxed day of newspapers and TV and occasionally looking in on the cats. They spent most of their time in the main bedroom, but Yang Yang also liked to spend time looking out from the breezeway between the two houses. Once in a while Minka joined him for a moment.

Yang Yang in the bedroom.

Minka on my s-i-l's bed.

My brother and s-i-l were due back late that evening, so I had dinner early and cleaned up the kitchen.

Chicken livers and hearts (they came attached to each other) sauteed with mushrooms etc. on toast points. Usual beverages.

When the folks got back we had a little collation which included some German cheeses and pastries I had bought. I got to bed about 1:30.

June 7  Friday was my return to the States (via Toronto).

My brother in what I understand is a fairly typical pose with the cats. Minka doesn't curl up in a lap, just drapes herself over one thigh. Yang Yang is not a lap cat at all. (If you recognize my brother, please keep it confidential).

My sister-in-law drove us to the station, where my brother and I caught a train to Shinjuku. There my brother made sure I found the train to Narita. It turned out my flight was delayed, which meant less time in Toronto. So I decided just to stick close to the gate. After an hour or so I realized that the gate I was at was my seat number, not the plane's departure. Fortunately, there was plenty of time to recover from that misreading of the boarding pass.

The flights were smooth and uneventful, although the Tokyo-Toronto leg went well south of the normal route, making the distance considerably longer than normal, but the pilot made up for it by flying about 100 mph faster than normal, so our flight time was about as scheduled. I suppose the change of route was to avoid rough weather.

I arrived home in a downpour from a tropical storm and got drenched just going from the van to my front door.

It was a pleasant and relaxing time in Japan, and my brother was very grateful. He said that if I hadn't come, he'd either have cancelled his trip or spent the whole time worrying about the cats.

Well, that concludes the trip. I may post a follow-up, with some words about the cost of the whole thing and pics of the loot I picked up, but these five "diary" posts give you the basics. I hope it was somewhat interesting.

Japan Diary, Part Three

This post will have lots of pics, mostly from early morning walks I took. I hope they give you some idea of what it's like in a basically residential area of Tokyo. When my grandmother was alive and I'd show her pics from my travels, she'd say, "That's lovely, Joe," at each one. Finally it dawned on me that what she meant was, "This is very boring, don't linger on it." So if you find these "lovely," feel free to skim. If you're not bored, I hope the captions will be adequate. I'll be happy to answer questions (if I know the answer). As always, click to enlarge. (I recommend it.)

May 31 I woke up early again (about 4:00) with the sky beginning to brighten, but I tried to get back to sleep. I got up at about 5:30 and headed out for a walk at about 6:00. There is a street which runs past my brother's side street, goes down a hill, crosses a main street, and then goes uphill to the railroad station. Unusually for Japan, both streets have names. Nodai Dori goes to the station, crossing Shiroyama Dori along the way. In earlier times there was a river running through the low area, but now it has been placed in an underground channel, and there is a pedestrian promenade along its former course

Nodai Dori near my brother's house, looking north. The pedestrians give some idea of the width (i.e., narrowness) of the street.

Notice the absence of front yards. If a building doesn't come up to the street line, there is usually a wall or fence. Possibly with shrubbery.

Hydrangeas just beginning to bloom at an intersection.

Continuing along toward the station, approaching the dip.

The tall building in the distance is next to the station. It houses the Peacock department store, which is one of the places my brother showed me to shop for food. There is a bowling alley on the top floor, and you may be able to see the large bowling pin on the roof. (Actually, I can't see it even when I enlarge the pics, but I know I saw it when I took the pics.)

Side street. Fairly new buildings.

Street level sign board for Gotsui restaurant, where we ate the previous evening. The restaurant is upstairs, and you can see the stairs to the right.

Another sign board for Gotsui. Pictured on it is the section where we ate. They pushed the tables together for us.

At this point I have crossed Shiroyama Dori, the former river area. From here to the station, the street is lined with shops. At times, it is a pedestrian zone.

Streetscape.

English adds a bit of cachet. (There are a number of schools nearby, and many students may be studying English.) During a previous trip I was fascinated by the name and ate there. Food was very good, for a burger joint, and cooked to order.

Coincidentally, the place where my brother took me to lunch later in the day is on the second floor, right over this place.

The station comes into view.

The tracks are elevated at this point, and there is a roof over them.

Station, with plaza.

The sign identifies the train line and the station. From the part of the plaza you see, one goes down three shallow steps to get to the roofed ares, where the doors are to the left. Notice the sculpture to the right.

Beyond the station, to the left, is a several story building housing a number of shops and an Odakyu OX store, which also included a supermarket

This side of the station was something more familiar to Westerners.

A side street not far from the station.

Another shot of Nodai Dori, now heading south, away from the station.

The wall and fence look modern, but the exterior of the building has been made to look traditional, at least at a glance to a Westerner.

After breakfast, I did some laundry, mainly so I'd know how the machine worked if I had to wash something while they were away. I also read some of my book by Voegelin and worked the newspaper puzzles.

For lunch my brother took me to a place called Cozi Cozi. He had the five item special (quiche, pate, meatball, potato, salad  with a roll.) I had the borscht and piroshki. Each cost ¥1,000 (about $10).

In mid-June they had a party there to celebrate my bother's becoming a Japanese citizen.

In the evening, I lent a hand in the kitchen as my sister-in-law prepared a dinner of seafood curry (with mushrooms) and salad.

After dinner, the taxi arrived to take my brother to the airport.

Picture taken without flash. To the left are my s-i-l's brother and mother. My brother and s-i-l to the right.

June 1  On Saturday I headed out even earlier, about 4:30, and walked a bit of the promenade where the river used to be. There were a few other people out walking too, including a young couple (end of night or beginning of day?)

I like the tape to warn walkers of the overhang — instead of cutting the tree down.

I think this is an alley off the promenade. The Japanese like to have trees and shrubs in their yards.

The promenade winds between buildings.

There are small garden and playground areas.

It is suitably marked where it crosses a street.

Flowers are planted in spots along the way.

After another relaxing day of newspapers, TV, book, food shopping  and nap, dinner was a fairly simple affair, ordered in from the sushi place (but not sushi), and then it was my sister-in-law's turn to take a taxi to the airport. 

Now I was alone with the cats.