The picture content is pretty weak with this entry. I should clarify that the number of pictures is not up to par. The subject of the 2 pictures, of course, is extraordinary. I didn't want to insult anyone. I got lazy and had trouble remembering to bring my camera along. I was going to download some pictures of Niagara Falls off the internet and pretend that I took them, but I figured if someone really wanted to see them, they will surely find plenty of pictures of the falls on the internet. I was also waiting for some people (who will remain nameless!) to email me the pictures they took, but finally gave up. I kind of figured that I would never get them judging by these persons past history, but I tried to keep an open mind and give them the benefit of the doubt.
On Saturday morning I managed to drag myself out of bed at a decent hour and Abbey and I took off for Buffalo. We stayed with Mary Jo and Mike Tomasik for 3 days. Mary Jo was a good friend of Mary Beth's and her college roommate for 4 years. It also happens that Mary Jo's uncle is a priest in Buffalo and my uncle, Fr. Jim Ruddick, knows him. If you know my uncle, that shouldn't come as a surprise. Anyways, Mary Jo got Fr. Jim's cellphone number from her uncle and invited him over for dinner Sat. night. Her parents came over also as her father, Tony Lorenzetti, used to work with my uncle at Canisius college many years ago. So we had a nice little reunion and Fr. Jim and Tony spent quite a while catching up on the whereabouts of old acquaintances. I think they both thoroughly enjoyed it.
On Sunday afternoon, Mary Jo, Mike, Abbey and I went for a hike to a place known as Gas Light Falls. There are no signs for it but it is near their house and they've been there several times. You hike down into this little gorge and follow a creek to a pretty cool waterfall. On one side of the waterfall is a crack in the rocks where there is natural gas leaking out of the rocks. It's not from a pipe, but just from a natural gas deposit down in the earth. It is usually lit so there's almost always a flame burning, but the waterfall was really running as they've had a lot of rain. There's a sign at the trailhead that even suggests relighting it if it's out, but it was way too wet. It was still a nice walk and Abbey was glad to get out. She played in the creek the whole way. It started raining again so we headed back to the house and kept dry inside and watched the Bills get killed by Oakland on TV.
On Monday Mike and I and their youngest son, Luke (3), took a drive up to Niagara Falls. I hadn't seen it in more than 30 years so I didn't remember much about it. It is pretty impressive but not as big as I remembered. What struck me too was that it felt like it was part of the city and not out in the wilderness. We went to the Canadian side as they seem to have kept it nicer than the American side. The Canadians, though, have shown that they can do touristy tackiness just as well as Americans with everything from a wax museum to the Guinness Book of Records exhibit. After we got drenched, not from rain, but just from the mist of the falls we drove up to Niagara-on-the-Lake which is a nice little resort town. We walked around town, but there's not too much to do there on a cold, rainy day.
On Tuesday I stopped to see my Aunt Helen and Uncle Arnold, now living in an assisted living residence in Elmira, NY before heading on to my cousin, Pat Dailey's outside of Syracuse. I hadn't seen my aunt and uncle for a number of years so it was nice to spend some time with them and have dinner. Unfortunately, they both have some health problems so they sold their house earlier this year and moved into this residence. All things considered they appear to be doing pretty well, and I can attest to the food being pretty good. On the way to Syracuse, Marcellus actually, I ran into some wet snow. I was hoping to avoid the snow for a while, but I guess winter is coming out east too. At higher elevations they got several inches but luckily where Pat and Mary live in Marcellus it was only raining. Unfortunately, it has rained everyday since last Thursday in Columbus. Now I really feel like I am back in NY. Abbey and I spent a few nights with Pat, Mary, their 3 kids and their dog, Jessie. Abbey has gotten much better around other dogs. Jessie is a skittish dog, but the two of them got along fine after a short while as long as Abbey didn't go in Jessie's crate.
An old work friend, Omar Rahim, lives in nearby Manlius so on Thursday I moved on to see he and his wife, Marcia, and their 3 boys. Every time I see these guys the boys have grown another few sizes. The weather had improved greatly by the middle of the week so Omar, Marcia, Abbey and I went for a nice walk at a lake nearby. The leaves aren't spectacular this year, but they're hanging around a lot longer than usual and they aren't bad by most standards. On Saturday we took another short hike at Chittenango Falls State Park before Abbey and I drove to Amsterdam. Mary Beth's mom, Elsie, passed away in June, but her brother, Bob, still lives in the house. He had the kids this weekend so it was good timing. He was having a garage sale so I'm sure he thought it was good timing for me to come too. I'll be sticking around this area for a few weeks or so catching up with friends, spending time with Bob and the kids, and catching up on dentist, vet, chiropractor, etc. appointments.
Omar and Marcia
Omar and I