Well, the 10-day sojourn to New England is coming to an end. It began and will conclude with time in the old stomping grounds, next to the house in which my brothers and sisters and I grew up.
We tended to some tasks, were treated to a wonderful stay with my wife’s sister, got some work done, and in between visited with our son and his kids in Mid-coast Maine, along with another sister-in-law and her husband and his daughter in Connecticut.
I reacquainted myself with Maple, a mixed breed dog getting up in years but still willing and able to run like the wind in pursuit of a tennis ball, and Georgie, a younger Golden Retriever who, perhaps longingly, wishes she could run like Maple. I chopped some wood, drank coffee, we ate fresh fish as one can only find it near the coast of Maine, and waited extra long for an order at McDonald’s.
We were entertained by our two Mainer grandchildren who have no fear of performing, and who are busy with one thing or another for almost the entire duration of their waking hours. I was moved by how our oldest child has grown into a loving, attentive father who, like most parents at various points in time, must take a deep breath when parenthood gets heavy and weighs on your nerves.
Time was spent prepping for the Mom’s homecoming from a trip to an exotic tropical destination, a trip she earned as one of Maine’s best teachers.
We leave for PA in a little while, via a stop to see an aunt and maybe an uncle, the two remaining siblings from my Mom’s family who have both reached their 90s and are still percolating, and marveling, like the rest of us, at the inexorable passage of time and that puzzling dynamic of thinking like you’re still in your twenties but moving more like you’re trapped in a sometimes uncooperative old body.
By day’s end, we should be back in PA, somewhat refreshed and mostly ready to get on with Spring and engage the routine once again.
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