Abbey's Road

Since we’ve started a new year, I’m going to try and get back to writing in my blog a little more regularly than I have been the last few months. Hopefully, this will also help get my brother, who doesn’t seem to have enough to do in life, off my back.

While staying at my parents in December I managed to take a few side trips to NYC and DC. In early December I drove down to northern Virginia to meet up with Ann (Butler) and Joe Potak. Ann is a good friend of mine from ND that I seem to track down every few years or so. The three of us had dinner and then hooked up with Chip Block, my college roommate, and his wife Bonnie. Bonnie and Joe went home early to watch their respective kids so poor Ann got stuck listening to Chip and I have a lively discussion about religion, in a bar no less. I guess that’s a sign we’re getting old. Since Ann & Joe had just moved into their house 3 days earlier I stayed with Chip and Bonnie for 2 nights. On Saturday I did my part for the community (despite the fact that I don’t live there) and helped Chip ring the bell for the Salvation Army at the local mall. On Sunday I decided to see what Chip’s Presbyterian church service was all about. It was quite interesting, and lively too, but don’t worry mom. I don’t think I’ll be converting anytime soon. So much for the wild college days. I topped off the weekend by meeting my cousin, Joanie Dailey, in DC for brunch before heading back home.

Chris (my friend from grade school who you might remember from my Yellowstone trip) and I took the train up to NYC the weekend before Christmas. He went to see his sister and I went to see a high school friend, Alison Sawdey. Alison was a bit under the weather (read “she was out late at a party the night before”) so we took it easy and did some window shopping down in Soho and Greenwich Village. We did go into the Prada store, which I found to be a unique experience. First of all, there’s no sign on the place at all so you have to “know” it’s there. I guess it adds to the mystique of Prada. I knew I was in the wrong store when there were no prices on the merchandise. I was relieved for Alison when they didn’t have the coat she liked in her size. I figured she could take an extra vacation this year with the money she saved! After we had about all the shopping we could handle, we met up with Chris and his sister, Mary Ellen, and found a great little dive bar – the Back Fence. OK, I’m probably being a bit generous when I say a “great” dive bar, but it sure had an interesting character. We found out, after going up to the bar ourselves, that our waitress was Brigid, who looked like the woman from “Throw Momma from the Train.” Only she had a quite a mouth on her. I can’t repeat most of what she said here, but we did find out she leads poetry readings every Sunday at 3PM. So the next time you’re in NYC you might want to look the place up and check her out. I’m dying to find out what her poetry is like. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t give us a sample reading. Later we found out that it’s Mike Schiavi’s brother’s favorite place. Apparently they have good music on Friday and Saturday nights, but who needs music when you’ve got Brigid to entertain you.

While in Wilmington I managed to catch up with some old high school friends – Dave Yemc, Mike Schiavi, Chris Sereduke, Rich Przywara and John Quinn. We were all amazed at how little we’ve changed over the years. Besides a few grey hairs (OK, more than a few) and a few pounds here or there, we all pretty much look the same, or at least we all thought so. Coming back home for the holidays the last few years has allowed me to reconnect with some of my old friends that I hadn’t seen all that much in the last 10 or 15 years, so I’m grateful for that.

I spent the final night of 2005 at my cousin Joanie’s in DC. She had a small group of us for an early dinner and then had a larger party later on. One of the dinner guests was an 81-year old French woman – I’ve always been a sucker for a foreign accent. She’s actually been in the US for about 60 years, and she’s worked as an actuary for the IRS for the last 30. Believe it or not she is still working. She was real interesting to talk to and she brought a mean rum cake with some Haitian rum to boot so I was sad to see her leave early in the evening. The interesting thing for me was that most of the guests were single. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a party that wasn’t mostly married couples or families. Not that I haven’t enjoyed seeing my married friends, but it was fun to meet some new people who were my age and single. They just have a different perspective. I also learned an interesting fact (at least my cousin and her friends claim it’s true) about DC – there are about 7 single women to every single male in the city. Maybe I should reconsider settling down out west.

Well, I hope you had fun over the holidays and I wish you a great and healthy New Year!

Posted by Ed at 9:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I arrived in Amsterdam - NY, not the Netherlands - on Saturday, 10/29 and stayed with Mary Beth's brother, Bob. He was having a garage sale that weekend so I made sure to arrive late enough on Saturday so I missed most of the excitement. I did get to help out on Sunday, but it was pretty slow that day. Amsterdam is about 40 minutes from my previous hometown, Saratoga Springs, so I visited it and many friends while I was there. Abbey got to go to her favorite old stomping ground, Spa State Park in Saratoga a number of times and I got to go to my chiropractor, the dentist, and the RV service center. I did get to go out to dinner with friends several times so she didn't have all the fun. It was nice to be back in the area and I realized how much I liked Saratoga. I really like the mixture of the small-town feel and the cultural amenities that you'd expect in a larger city. I also stopped in at my old house. The new owners were happy to see me and luckily they didn't have too many things to complain about since they moved in. Plus they haven't really redone anything. I'm always afraid of going to see an old house after I've sold it and finding that the new owners have done a ton of remodeling. It would make me feel like we didn't do a very good job on design, upkeep, etc. All in all they are very happy with the house and the surroundings so I feel good that they were the ones to buy it.

While in Amsterdam I got to spend some time with my nieces and nephew (Bob's kids) which was real nice. Living in Saratoga gave Mary Beth and I a chance to see them quite often, but being on the road I had only seen them once in the previous 6 months. Since I have no kids of my own, I try to be real nice to all of my nieces and nephews hoping that one or two of them will want to take care of me when I get old and senile. Wishful thinking, maybe?

I was also able to get together a few times with Mary Beth's close friends from childhood (who also became good friends of mine over the years). They are more like family now so it is always nice to see them. Besides whenever you get four Italian women together (oh yea, and their spouses too) it's quite - how should I say it - maybe exhilarating is the best word. At the very least, it is loud. It was a good idea for the restaurant to put us in a corner by ourselves.

After leaving Amsterdam I got to catch up with some friends from my IBM Kingston days. Friday night I stopped in Kingston for dinner with one group - Mike Parkes, Jim Brown and Marianne Devine, Shari Wingard and Stephanie Moore - and I spent the weekend with Rich and Nancy Beckert, who now live in Connecticut. I lived with Rich for a year when we first started working, and they lived up the street from Mary Beth and my first house in Woodstock. I hadn't seen them in several years and was quite shocked at the size of their kids. Another couple from Kingston, Ed and Rhonda Alt, live nearby so they came over for dinner Saturday night. During the day Rich and I drove up to Ed's house and he was out front smoking a cigar. Of course we had to stay for a few beers while I got the tour of the house, much to Rhonda's dismay, and a glimpse of Ed's Christmas yard ornament collection. Let's just say he could make a few bucks if he sold them on e-bay, not to mention it would make Rhonda pretty happy. We were hoping to take Eddie's Vette out for a testdrive until one of his neighbors pulled up and blocked the driveway with his car and started drinking whiskey. That's when Rich and I knew we weren't getting a ride so we headed out. Before going down to Wilmington to my parents, I made one last stop at yet another cousin's - Mary Anne (Dailey) Grilli and her husband Mark. They have 3 adorable kids who love dogs. Last year Abbey was allowed to stay over at their house one night and the kids were real excited. Abbey was the first, and only, dog who has been allowed to stay overnight at their house. Mary Anne is a little skittish with dogs, but relented figuring that Abbey is older and calmer (good thing I didn't try this 3 or 4 years ago!) and the kids would never forgive her if she didn't let Abbey stay. So they were excited to see her again, and they got a kick out of my RV. I'd like to think that all the kids I've been seeing have been excited to see me, but it's probably more that they like getting a tour of the RV and playing with Abbey.

I finally made it to Wilmington a few days before Thanksgiving, one day before Susan, Tim and the boys showed up. At least I had one day of calm before the storm! On Thanksgiving, we all went to my sister, Terri's house. My oldest sister, Maribeth, and my brother, Michael, and their families were there as well. There were only 20 of us this year (last year she had 27), but we still managed to have a good time. Could've had something to do with the numerous bottles of wine that we drank. Black Friday shopping is a huge occasion with my mom and sisters. Somehow they are able to acquire superhuman stamina for a daylong shopping expedition. Smartly, the men now avoid it. When I was young and foolish I also partook of this tradition, but I've gotten wiser, or, more likely I've lost patience and stamina over the years. I went geo-caching with, you guessed it, Michael, Sandra and a bunch of the kids. I'm not sure this geo-caching thing is all it's cracked up to be, but at least it gets you out of the house, and most of the time out into the woods to get some fresh air. Some of the caches were located in shopping plazas or very close to a parking lot so they weren't too exciting.

Last weekend my brother John came up from WV for a conference for work. Part of his job with Verizon is lobbying the WV state government. There was a State Government conference in Wilmington for the weekend and he and some other lobbyists came along to wine and dine their respective legislators. It's quite a boondoggle. He was nice enough to invite me along one night to let Verizon make up for some of the difficulties I've had with their service over the last few years. (I must say that I still have Verizon wireless and would still recommend them - your welcome, John.) I had a good time, and I gained a better appreciation for what he does. I'm not sure how he keeps up with these guys though. They sure know how to eat and drink. One night was enough for me, but it was a lot of fun.

Well, I'm sticking around Wilmington 'til Christmas at least. It's been quite cold here so I emptied the RV of all the water and blew out the water lines so I wouldn't have any frozen water line problems. It's a little too cold to be camping in it right now and since I'll be staying with family and friends for now it's the easiest thing. Amid Christmas shopping I'm trying to catch up with friends in the area. I'm heading down to DC for a few days this weekend and will update you more later.
Bob and the Kids
Bob and the Girls

Posted by Ed at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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

Posted by Ed at 1:34 PM | Permalink

I arrived back from NY last night. The funeral and everything went well, all things considered. It felt like I had been away more than 2 months, so it was nice to see Bob and the kids and some old friends. I also saw my sister-in-law Carol who is also Bob's cousin, and Veronica, another one of Bob's cousins. It was real nice to see both of them and spend time talking with them. I also got to spend a lot of time with the kids which was really nice. It was strange staying in Elsie's house with her not there. While I was there, I met up with Stephanie Moore, the wife of my friend Paul who died a few weeks ago. She happened to be travelling back from Buffalo and passing right by Amsterdam. We had a good long talk, and we probably could have talked longer if it weren't for her daughters who were patiently waiting with Steph's sister. I know what it's like to talk to someone who has also lost a loved one so I was more than happy to talk to her.

After cleaning up the RV and getting the frig. stocked up again I'm heading up north and back on the road again. I'm stopping in Sacramento to pick up DeeAnne who was able to get last-minute flights for an unexpected visit for the holiday weekend. We're heading up towards Oregon from there. I hope you all have a great 4th.

Posted by Ed at 2:26 PM | Permalink