THE FOOTNOTES

So, this was suppose to be lastb and only present as an obligation, really, but this is Mommy (Megan) and Daddy (Patrick) at the vineyard in June. That Patrick is a real cutie...what a looker...

Mary, Moe and I went to Megan's for Thanksgiving. Megan really rolls out the rug for us. Her preparation is notewworthy--she thinks of everything, and everything is well done. A very nice day, and, as usual, she sends us home with enough food to last another week.
We don't know where she gets her energy, but we're glad she has it.

Rita's latest postings concerning her vacaation in Ecuador were most interesting. Her references to the equator brought to mind my experience in crossing the equator on our minesweeper, YMS -176, IN WWII. I had written about in in our old newsletter, had forgotten about, and rediscovered a single page in my chaotic files just today which I will paraphrase below:
.....We crossed the International Dateline en route to the Admiralty Isles in the South Pacific and were initiated into "The Silent Mysteries Of the Far East" which is in the "Imperial Domain of The Golden Dragon"
We crossed 180th Meridian on September 19, 1944 at 0400
--That's 4 am to landlubbers. We were issued cards commemorating the event, and we sailed on to the equator
which we crossed on Octobber 2, 1944. That made us "Shellbacks" and we entered the "Domain of Neptunus Rex" whose clerk is Davey Jones. We, incoming Shellbacks, were initiated into "The Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep" by those members of the crew who were already Shellbacks. Our initiation was tame compared with initiations on larger ships: such things as having to crawl through garbage, and suffer other indignities. Our ship was too small to do much, and we ha d very few crewmen who were already Shellbacks--they did the best they could to humiliate us. Having been initiated, it would be our turn to initiate newcomers next time but we never got a chance. We crossed the equator at 151-15 and proceeded to the Admiralties. In less than three weeks, October 20, we participated in the invasion of the Phillipines at Leyte Gulf.

This is my friend, Isabel. She invited me to visit with her and her family this past summer in Quito. I had a great visit! This photo was taken on their little farm about an hour outside the city. It's a good life there, if you can set aside some conventional concerns about crime, roaming dogs, and traffic! There is always a dog barking somewhere and I was up awake many nights worrying about the street dogs. I can't help it.

My friend Isabel's family was so happy to see me go (after only 6 days), that they threw me a party. I guess they figured out, in a very short period of time, what has taken others years to realize - it's nice to say 'adios' to Rita K! Smart people, those South Americans.

Her family is quintessentially Latin - generous, sociable, and family-oriented. I had a great experience with them.

Here's Sunny, the new guest in my house. He was abandoned, then adopted by people who didn't know what to do with him. Now he's homeless again. Poor kid. Anyway, he's very loving and playful. He and Savannah played over three hours the first day. Then she got tired and told him to buzz off, dog style. That means she showed her teeth and acted like she was going to eat him for dinner. Dogs just get over it and don't end up in therapy afterwards. We should be more like them!

Numerous universities offer a program called Open Course Ware (OCW) whereby anybody interested can take free courses ---thousands of choices. They are free. You don't see a professor, which is what I miss, you don't get a grade or credit, but you can download the syllabus, learn which texts are required, sometimes related information such as newspaper or magazine articles, lecture notes, etc. Nobody checks on your progress--it's up to you. I have been using MIT.EDU/OCW, but many schools offer this. The courses have all been taught to their students. Also look into their free on-line courses--I am dabbling with one fron University of Oklahoma. Feed that tired brain!

Rediscovered these two pictures. Uncle Dom was a brother of your Grandmother Marie Lynch. These pictures from the New Britain Herald were taken on the occasion of Dom's retirement, which I think was in 1969. Dom's children are shown as well.

"Who Dat" almost beat them Saints? Well, it was a close game that went into overtime. The Falcons coach showed great faith in his offense by going for it on 4th down and inches (deep in their own territory) rather than letting Drew Brees get the ball back. Oops. We didn't make it. It was a nail biter to the end. Anyway, we had a lot of fun with friends and ate a lot of good cajun food. Here is a little view of our social time with my girlfriends from CDC and the Noonan party boys.

Our very own Heisman hero, right here in Atlanta.

We had a big group for the tailgate yesterday - 8 in our group and we joined some other families who always congregate in the same area. There's great food and music. After a couple of frosty cold ones, lots of people start dancing - including Perfect Patrick.

Bob and I put in a lot of work on Sunday hauling broken limbs, chainsawing some and picking up leaves. My ride-on-mower broke a belt
and that slowed us up a bit. Still more to do. The following posting will give youa good summary of whar happened here,

 

Jig- a- tee- jig, as the song goes.
The historic October snow storm paralyzed almost the entire state. Tolland was close to 100% out of power. Trees and wires were down everywhere, and some are still down in Tolland. Our power was restored almosr exactly one week after it went out. Thank god Mary never lost power. Bob came to get us to take us there and we slept and lived there for seven days and nights. Mary and Bob could not have treated us better. So at last we are home!