Halloween 2021

We had a nice time tonight giving out candy for Halloween. We really didn't know what to expect after the pandemic non-trick or treat night last year. Becky got the usual amount of candy from Target and we had it on hand for the kids. Fortunately is was good weather and actually very pleasant on the porch. We sat out there all evening and I had a speaker playing my Rockin' Bones Halloween mix I had recently uploaded to Spotify.

We ended up having the usual amount of trick or treaters and actually these kids were all very polite and seemed happy to be out celebrating the holiday. There were a few houses giving out treats but not as many as in previous years and certainly did not feel like a block party as it had before the pandemic. There was also no PCA Halloween party at the church around the corner as usual. The pandemic was still on people's minds. Our next door neighbors usually have a candy chute that brings kids from all over the neighborhood to our block but this year there was only a sign stating stay healthy and get vaccinated. 

There were plenty of great costumes this year and a few of those new blow up outfits. We had a trio of teenage girls offer to sing us a song for treats which was a lot of fun and right off of Tic Tok.

We spent a little over two hours on the porch giving out candy.

Doves on the Wire

Yesterday I took our bird feeder and hung it on the hook on our back porch. I didn't put any birdseed in it yet. Almost immediately a squirrel came to check it out and climbed all over the feeder. This morning we saw a family of blue jays come by and check out the feeder. They hung around it for awhile and long enough for a couple of mourning doves to hover nearby on the roof of the shed.

They must have thought I was getting ready to put the bird seed out because in a little while I counted twelve doves nearby. Eight of them were on the wire above the feeder.

I usually put the bird seed out in early November. I only put the feeder up now because I was in the shed and it was handy. Monday is November 1st. I also grabbed the clips I use to keep the top on the feeder that prevents the squirrels from getting into the seed. It is always a long battle over the winter between me and the squirrels. 

I certainly don't mind them getting the seeds that fall to the ground but when they are hanging on the feeder grabbing the birdseed it then keeps the birds from getting fed. The clips and wire worked last year.

First Bake

Becky's first bake of the fall season was a delicious cranberry walnut bread loaf. It smelled wonderful fresh out of the oven last night. She loves to bake breads over the winter months.

The recipe came from the King Arthur's Baking website. We also have their bread book. 

She prepared the cranberries and other ingredients while listening to the new Jimmie Vaughn album.

We had some of this bread for breakfast this morning. It tasted great and had some nice sweetness on the top due to a sprinkling of sugar during the baking process. Looking forward to more of it this week.

Duane Allman

Duane Allman died on October 29, 1971. He was 24 years old. It was a motorcycle accident. I was a 19 year old sailor at the time. It's hard to believe that was 50 years ago. Duane Allman was an incredible guitar player. I saw the Allman Brothers play at the Electric Factory in January 1970 about a month before I went to Navy boot camp. I was amazed at the guitar playing of Duane Allman. It still shocks me that he was dead within a year and so young. I saw the Allman Brothers one more time in 1973 but sadly without Duane. 

Today I listened to my copy of Duane Allman Anthology double album released in 1972 and the Anthology Vol. 2 released in 1974. It wasn't until I got these albums that I realized how often I was hearing Duane play as a session man on so many that I already owned or had heard on the radio. Now I knew about his working with Eric Clapton with Derek & The Dominoes and I had bought the Herbie Mann Push Push album because of Duane Allman's guitar playing. I knew he was that amazing guitar player on Boz Scaggs' Loan Me A Dime

but I didn't really know about his work with Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King and Delaney & Bonnie. 

Well, I really enjoyed listening to his music today. Those two anthologies were both double CD sets.

Ring Shout

I'm not sure where I first heard or read about this book but I finished it today and it was an amazing reading experience. Ring Shout was a very dark fantasy historical character driven novel that gives a supernatural spin to the Ku Klux Klan reign of terror in the early 20th century. It was a terrific read and very Lovecraftian horror story.

It's a story of a black woman monster killer using a magic sword and undercover as a bootleg whiskey runner in Prohibition Georgia. She journeys to other worlds as she fights demons who feed on the hate of the Klan members with the help of her comrades in arms. The slavering monsters are called Ku Kluxers.

The plot has the Klan planning to unleash Hell on Earth using the sorcerer D. W. Griffiths' film The Birth of a Nation as a spell to channel hate from the heart of America. The book is an amazing concept that illustrates how hate can breed monsters in America. 

This genre bending novel was a terrific mix of Horror, Fantasy, African-American folklore and Gullah culture set in the very racist Klan infested 1920's Prohibition-era Georgia. I was also very interested in the Afterward of the book where the author describes his research and the influences on the story. He is also an academic historian specializing in the area of trans-Atlantic slave trade.

This is just one of several books I've read recently having something to do with the black experience in America both fiction and nonfiction.

Sick Day

I was sick yesterday. All day. I spent most of the day in bed. I was fine the day before but I woke up feeling bad. I was a little dizzy, I felt nauseous but never close to vomiting. My first inclination was that I might be having a stroke or something related but there was no headache or other related symptoms. No, I had some kind of virus or bug. I was also very tired and fatigued. I had been busy doing yard work and had been pushing myself all week. I needed rest. Lots of rest.

Becky went to the store on her way back from the studio and picked up a couple of Covid test kits. We both tested negative. Everything we do these days is seen with the perspective of the pandemic.

My body probably has a lower natural immunity going on right now. I haven't been exposed much to the germs of other people because of wearing a mask in public and just not going out in crowded places like we've always done. Even this past week I haven't gone anywhere. Where could I have picked up a cold and Becky wasn't sick other than a slight headache. It's hard to know these days. I also had a flu shot a few weeks ago.

As the day went on I felt more and more like I had a bad cold including a sore throat but no runny nose. It was mostly the fatigue. I felt awful. I couldn't concentrate on anything. I couldn't read, write, watch tv or even listen to music. I just wanted to close my eyes and sleep.

Later in the afternoon I was up for a bit and Katie video called. I found out that Henry was sick too. Then we heard from Sean and Ashley that Andrew was also sick. I'm glad we weren't spreading it around to each other. The kids are at that place where they bring home all kinds of bugs from school and daycare. Been there done that.

I wasn't sure where I got my bug. It has been a week since we were traveling and at the airport, on the plane, etc. 

Well, I feel much better today. I used to get what my mom called "the 24 hour virus". and seems like what I had yesterday.

Vinyl and Me

Today in the New York Times there was an article about the resurgence of vinyl and the struggles of the music industry to keep up with demand. The article describes the manufacturing problems, the old technology and sudden recent increase of people collecting vinyl versions of new album releases. There has also been a recent surge in the demand for re-releases of classic albums. The article was titled Logjams Stall A Vinyl Revival. 

I have been reading a lot of posts and comments recently on some of the music groups on Facebook that are focused on vinyl collecting. There are quite a few of them and I've been members of some for many years and over the past year or so I joined a few more. There is even one specifically for Western New York. However, many of the members get a little crazy about vinyl and I had to drop out of a couple of groups because all they ever talked about was the minutia of collecting vinyl. They care about pressing anomalies and release versions of the cover.

I really don't care about the vinyl. I'm all about the music. I collected music and not the music format. Unlike so many other people populating these FB vinyl groups I do not have any album that I do not want to listen to. I don't care about the rarity of the album or what version or the collectability. I want the music. 

A beard coming out of his face

I recently started growing my beard back. It's that time of the year again. Henry and Clara were fascinated when I shaved it off last spring. Today during our video chat with the kids I told them I was growing my beard again. Henry didn't seem to care. He's seen it come and go before and he also wasn't feeling well. However, Clara came running over to the phone and peered closely at me and then ran across the room loudly exclaiming that Poppa has a beard coming out of his face.

125 Years of the NY Times Book Review

On Sunday the New York Times published a special 125th anniversary issue of their Book Review. I was very excited to see how large the Review was on this special occasion. There were many more pages than usual... 64 pages of anticipated great reading. 

There were over 30 reviews of books from throughout the 125 years of the published Book Review. There were also a dozen or more interviews with authors over the years and several essays.

Some of the reviews included books by James Joyce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Toni Morrison, Jane Jacobs, Jean-Paul Sartre, Willa Cather, Theodore Dreiser, Alex Haley, Doris Lessing, Amy Tan, Edith Wharton, Alice B. Toklas, Dale Carnegie, Rex Redd, Sylvia Plath, Flannery O'Connor and so many more. There were interviews with Gore Vidal, Colson Whitehead, Neil Sheehan, Isabel Allende, Eudora Welty, Ralph Ellison, Kurt Vonnegut and more. There was also a section on the development of the crime novel.

There is so much to read. I'm keeping this Book Review near my chair and I will be reading it regularly for the coming month until I've gone through every article cover to cover.

Havana Noir

Havana Noir by Achy Obejas, editor, 2007

This is the third collection of short crime stories in the Noir City series published by Akashic Books that I've read in the past year. This one collected stories that take place in Havana that were written by current or past residents of the city. I read this book from mid September to mid October 2021.

I didn't know any of the authors in this collection unlike the other books in this series. These stories of the real Havana of crime, poverty, desperation and collective hysteria. A very remarkable collection of some really strange characters in incredibly disturbing situations.

Very entertaining in a weird way.

Almonds Every Day

I've been eating a lot of almonds. Every day. We've always occasionally had a pack of almonds in the house but over the past couple of years we've consistently had a jar full handy at all times. It's been a go to snack. Now we always make sure we have some on the kitchen counter. We also started getting jars of almond butter. 

Almonds deliver a massive amount of nutrition and are great for protein and fiber. The almond industry group promotes almonds as "the perfect snack" and their are health recommendations of eating 23 almonds a day. I really like the roasted almonds. We get almonds now from several markets including the Co-Op, Dash's, Trader Joe's, Wegman's and Whole Foods. We like the Trader Joe's almond butter best.

I've always been a big eater of peanut butter. It's been a staple of my diet since I was a little kid. Now I've expanded my palette to include almond butter where I usually used peanut butter. I particularly like to put it on toast in the morning and sometimes on bagels too.

Late last year we were down in Philly visiting with Katie and the kids and I saw that she was putting almond butter into the kid's yogurt. Well, that was a revelation and I immediately tried it myself. Lo and behold, I loved it. Now I always put almond butter into my yogurt along with strawberries, blueberries, and granola. It taste amazing.

Spiced Wafers

But I always called them ginger snaps when I was growing up and I still love them. It's a fall season thing and also a Philadelphia thing. Occasionally we get them at a market in Buffalo but not very often. 

I always liked them after school with some apple cider. That orange box of ginger snaps would remind me that Halloween was coming. Over the years I grew to like the other versions of the cookie more commonly known as spiced wafers.

I mentioned to Kate before we traveled down to her house that I was looking forward to having some ginger snaps when I was in Philly. She bought this box of spiced wafers and I happily enjoyed a couple every day. I especially like them with some apple cider. They certainly bring back lots of memories from when I was a kid.

They were almost my favorite cookie because they were only around during a special time of the year and then they were gone until next year.

The War on Halloween

For years we have been hearing about the so called War on Christmas by christian conservatives who think everyone else is trying to get rid of Christmas or at least the religious aspect of the holiday and lately there has been a lot of anger from the same people who themselves want to get rid of Halloween which they argue is a pagan satanic celebration.

This has all gotten worse in this age of social media anger and trumpers. This sign on someone's door says it all. It's been hard enough last Halloween with so much of trick or treating cancelled because of covid but I wonder what it might be like going to houses in a red state trumper neighborhood.

Christian trumpers don't seem to care that all their religious holidays were originally pre-christian pagan celebrations that the early christian church conveniently scheduled to coincide pagan activities so that celebrants could be either christian or pagan at the same time. 

In the Eighth Century Pope Gregory III created the christian feast of All Saints Day at the same time as the ancient Celtic feast of Samhain which celebrated the harvest and had evolved into All Hallows Eve which eventually became Halloween. The ancient Druids and Celts also celebrated November 1 as their new year so of course a christian pope would create a christian feast day on that day.

The trumpers are already making a fuss.

The sign says... "Attention Satanic Socialist!!! This is the home of a PATRIOTIC CHRISTIAN FAMILY! We work hard and pay taxes! We do not celebrate Satan's Day. We do not give away free candy to lazy entitled freeloaders! No handouts! Welcome to America!! If you want candy GET A JOB!! And FIND JESUS!!!!"

Yard Full of Nuts

Yesterday we came home from our ten day visit to Philadelphia to a backyard full of leaves and black walnuts. Of course that is expected in mid-October and it has certainly happened many times before. Over the years that we have lived in Buffalo we have often traveled to visit family around the Columbus Day holiday weekend when the kids had an extra day off. It is also a very pleasant time of the year in Philly.

Today is my first full day back home and I will soon be going outside to continue with the cleanup of the backyard. I did some leaf and nut picking up before we left and had accumulated and tossed out twelve bags. I was estimating this year I would have about twenty bags total which is not a big nut year by far. The most bags I've had in a season was sixty and I usually average between thirty and forty. Only two of the eight trees that drop nuts in our yard are having a heavy nut year.

When I'm home during the time of the falling nuts which varies slightly year to year I am able to keep up with the cleanup and I don't usually have what I see out there right now. A couple of years ago we had a banner year for nuts during the time we were in Europe and we came home to a full yard of nuts and leaves that took several days of intense cleanup. It's not quite that bad this time but it will take a couple of days. Fortunately I did some before we left and there are already piles in the yard. 

Earlier in the summer in June our trees dropped a lot of very small black walnuts. I was wondering at the time what the Fall would be like. I wrote about it here.

Today will also be cool and sunny. A beautiful day to work in the yard. Becky will also be back there cutting back the gardens.

The day before we left for Philly I noticed that a falling nut had punched a hole in the arm of one of our plastic chairs sitting under a tree in the yard. 

Big Back Yard

The Big Backyard Nursery School is where Katie and Todd sent Henry the past year or so during the pandemic when his previous daycare school closed. Henry went on to kindergarten at the neighborhood public school and now Clara is at the Big Backyard. The school is located a few blocks away on Gowan Street in their Mt Airy neighborhood.

Becky and I have been there a few times last year with Henry and recently during our October visit with Clara. Most of the activities for the children happen outside in the big backyard of the church where the nursery school is located. This was started as a safety feature for the children during the pandemic. All of the children also wear masks along with the teachers. They play outside regardless of the season. Last winter Henry would wear two pairs of pants and was bundled up for outdoor play. 

When we were down in Philly visiting in October we went to a party at the Big Backyard where we really got a feel for how the kids interacted there in that special space. It really was a lot of fun that was full of activities for the kids including a band performing at the site. Henry loved being back there and many of his friends from his kindergarten class had also gone to that daycare center over the years.

It was interesting to see how kids were reacting to the covid restrictions. It's so hard to imaging how difficult it is for parents to send their children out into this pandemic world. 

Wissahickon Adventure

On a cloudy Saturday afternoon Henry, Todd and I along with Stella went out on a Wissahickon Adventure while Clara was taking a nap. One of the really nice things about living in the Northwest section of Philadelphia is the easy access to the Wissahickon Valley Park. I grew up spending a lot of time in that park and it is fun to go there with my grandchildren.

From their Mt Airy neighborhood it is a quick walk to the Cresheim Creek area of the park or a five minute drive to the Lincoln Drive entrance which is where we went for our walk in the woods.

We walked along the creek down past the McCallum Street bridge. It was a little tough going and I had Henry while Todd had Stella on a leash. We were enjoying ourselves very much but the weather looked like it might be turning bad. There seemed like some rain in the air and we decided we should be heading back.

We crossed the creek just below the bridge and headed back on a different trail on the other side of the creek. It started raining slightly but we could feel some drops coming through the trees. It was also clouding up more and getting darker in the woods. I was helping Henry getting along the trail and I had to be very careful myself where I was putting my feet. I certainly didn't want to have a fall but I am a nearly 70 year old man making my way along a rough uneven path in the woods with a 5 year old at my side. We made it across some very tricky spots on the trail especially under that McCallum Street bridge.

We crossed the creek again but this time over a foot bridge and then we were back on our original trail heading back to the Lincoln Drive entrance where the car was parked. It was raining although most of the drops were not getting through the trees but it was getting significantly darker. Then we made it up the hill and out of the creek valley where it suddenly started raining hard. We scrambled up the steps and then along the wooded street to the car. We got a little wet but were happy to be in the car and home in five minutes. We had quite the Wissahickon Adventure and enjoyed every moment.

Jasper Johns - Mind/Mirror

Becky, Katie and I went down to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the Jasper Johns show. Becky had gone online the previous week to get tickets. When we told Kate our plans for that Friday morning she asked to go along with us as the kids would both be in school and Todd was home to pick them up. 

At first we were planning to take the train down to the museum but then decided to take a Lyft ride which worked out fine in both directions.

The Jasper Johns show in Philadelphia titled Mind/Mirror was one of two simultaneous career retrospective exhibits. The other is in New York at the Whitney Museum. We're hoping to try to get to see that one in January. We had tickets for the show at 10:30.

We all enjoyed this show very much and of course especially Becky. The show really displayed his work from so many phases of his career. It was all very fascinating and we spent an hour in the exhibit area. Then we wandered around the museum for another hour and a half. It was nice to be back in that very familiar museum again. There were also some areas that had been renovated and were spectacular. We had noticed coming in to the museum that the Rocky statue had been moved from the front steps and placed off to the side of the building on park grounds. Of course there were people lined up to take pictures in front of Rocky.

We walked around several galleries and after a while we went over to the cafeteria and had a nice lunch before heading outside to wait for our Lyft ride. There was a funny incident when we saw what we thought was our Lyft car pull up and watched someone get in before I could approach it. Then it drove away but we could see it down the street a little turn around and come back where it dropped off the rider. I knew at that point it was our car because of the license plate number. It turned out the other person was a George but then quickly determined he had the wrong car when the driver mentioned he was going to Mt Airy. First time we ever had that kind of mix up with a Lyft or Uber ride.

Trattoria Moma

We finally got to have dinner at Trattoria Moma on Germantown Avenue around the corner from Katie and Todd's home in Mt Airy, Philadelphia. We've heard good things about this little Italian restaurant and have been talking about going there for the four years that Kate has lived nearby. We babysat for Kate and Todd a couple of times while they went down the street for dinner at Moma. Finally it was our turn.

There are a lot of nice restaurants within a few blocks of their house and many more up the avenue in Chestnut Hill. We've gone out to a few of them over the past four years by ourselves and with family or friends but we just didn't make it to the closest restaurant. The pandemic didn't help. Actually it's been a couple of years since we went out to any restaurant while visiting them.

We made our reservations for the outside patio and walked down there on Wednesday evening. It was beautiful out with a slight chill in the air. On Sunday and Wednesday they have a special pre-fix dinner and we decided to go with that option that included an antipasti, primi, secondi, and dessert. The special was $37 per person. Cash only. We had a wonderful dinner. We sat on the patio which was on the side of the building along with about a dozen other people spread across a few tables. The inside looked very nice too and there were people at a couple of tables.

This restaurant does not have a liquor license and is a BYOB establishment. Fortunately there is a wine and liquor store across the street and a cash machine nearby. Becky is not drinking alcohol for health reasons and I didn't want a whole bottle. I walked over there earlier and bought one of those little boxes of wine that hold about three glasses. It was a nice pinot noir and worked fine for our dinner.

Our dinner consisted of Rucola, an arugula salad with lots of great ingredients. Capino, roasted beets, goat cheese and pistachio pesto. Then some Pappardello lamb ragu with hand made pasta and Ravioli stuffed with wild mushrooms and ricotta cheese in a cream sauce. Next was Peposo short ribs with risotto porcini and Anatra which is a duck confit with truffle polenta, mushroom and marsala sauce. Finally we both had a cannoli.  We also had a bottle of Italian sparkling water with dinner. We loved everything and had a very satisfying walk back to Katie's house where I finished off with a bottle of Oktoberfest.

Brewers Outlet Mt Airy

Yesterday I walked over to Brewers Outlet from Katie's house to pick up some beer. It's a nice walk about four blocks away at Germantown Avenue and Gowan Avenue. I got a six pack of Oaktoberfest, an oak aged lager, from Firestone Walker Brewery. We've been over there several times over the past four years that Kate and Todd have lived in Mt Airy. 

I saw there was a sign stating the business was founded in 1976. This was our regular place to buy beer from that time until we moved out of town in 1979. There were several beer distributors closer to us in Germantown but the Brewers Outlet in Mt Airy had the best selection of foreign beers in the area. They still have a great selection of European beer but also not with craft beers.

We didn't have the craft beer selection in the 1970's that are available now. This beer store did have a fabulous collection of European beers that were generally not readily available. We would drive up there from Seymour Street and buy a case for a special occasion or party. One of our favorite beers that we would get there was John Courage Export Lager from Courage Brewery in England. It was founded in 1787. Beer production ended in 1982 which is why I've never been able to find it anywhere since we got it regularly at Brewers Outlet. Apparently the Courage Brewery name has been sold several times to other conglomerates and most recently the Courage name belongs to Marston's Brewery but not available in the US.

Anyway, it's nice to have a good beer store nearby along with a couple of local breweries when we go to visit Katie and the kids.

Reading Terminal Market

During out family Center City Adventure in Philadelphia with the kids yesterday we stopped in the Reading Terminal Market. This place is an adventure in itself and has been one of my favorite places my entire life.

On this particular trip we didn't get to spend a lot of time there. We just sort of passed through on our way to the train station and looked around for a bit. We had already had our lunch so at this point we were only buying a few things to take back home with us and to use the bathrooms. 

I have many fond memories of the Reading Terminal Market and have eaten there many times over the years. I would have loved to have had a Philly cheese steak while we were there. The old Reading Terminal Train Station used to be in the same building before everything changed with the construction of the new station and the new convention center. Now there is a Hard Rock Cafe where the station used to be but the market is still there and going strong.

In fact the market has been doing well and is on the rebound after a rough patch due to the pandemic and the closing of so many downtown offices and workspaces as people worked from home and were not taking the train to and from work. It was always fun to stop at the market whenever I was taking the train home from being downtown. 

As a kid I can remember taking the train downtown with my grandmother or great aunts to go to Wanamakers or Gimbles department stores around Christmas time and actually many times throughout the year. We would always stop at the market for goodies to take home. When I was taking some classes at the center city campus of Temple University I would usually stop at the market on the way back home on the train and bring something back.

There was a time in the early 2000's when I was in Philly for a library conference. We were on a lunch break and I had gathered together a bunch of attendees from around the country who were looking for a place to eat lunch and I took them over to the Reading Terminal Market. We picked up over a dozen people. I was like a pied piper and everyone was very happy. Some folks later told me the market was one of the highlights of their conference.

I'm looking forward to being in Philadelphia this coming year first in January for the birth of our new grandchild and then again in the spring for another visit. I plan to have that cheese steak sauce and onions at the Reading Terminal Market.

Snow - John Banville

Snow by John Banville, 2020

A week ago I just finished another book by John Banville/Benjamin Black and I had to get right back into reading more from this wonderful writer. I wasn't disappointed. 

This one takes place in 1957 Ireland and is about family secrets that get revealed when a parish priest is found dead on their rural estate. This is another well written mystery detective novel coming from a master of describing police procedure. It's interesting that he is using his real name for a crime novel rather than the usual Benjamin Black. 

This book was a fascinating look at rural Ireland in the 1950's during a snow storm at Christmas. A time and place full of eccentric characters.

This is also the first in a new series about the detective St. John Strafford. I'm looking forward to move novels in this series.

Read Me A Book Poppa

I was sitting on the couch reading something on my tablet while Clara was playing with a puzzle near my feet. She looked up and asked me if I would read her a book. Of course I said and asked her to pick one out. She went over to a pile of books and came back with a toy catalog. 

She sat very close to me on the couch and cuddled. She turned a few pages before stopping and pointing to a particular photo that she apparently was looking for. With her finger on the picture she said " Poppa, could you get me a kid's tablet for my birthday?" She'll be three next month. 

Center City Adventure

When Katie and Todd take the kids out somewhere for an activity like a playground or a special place they call it an adventure. Todd will particularly use the term when he takes Henry out for a walk in the woods while Clara is napping. We used that expression when we all took the train down to center city on Monday.

I wrote about riding the train in a previous post. After we left the train station we walked through Chinatown and at that time we were considering a place in the area to go back to for lunch. We headed for the nice playground in Franklin Square on the edge of Chinatown. I had never been to Franklin Square although I have driven by it many times but there have been many wonderful improvements since I passed through this area.

The kids had a great time and the diversity of the children playing there was amazing. I was impressed with what the city did with this park to make it so welcoming to everyone. There was a couple of grandparents with two children on the train with us and we saw them at this same playground which really must be a destination.

Henry was running around playing on all the swings and things and climbing on everything. Clara was a little more quiet and reserved. A little toddler boy with his grandmother came over to me and Becky while we were sitting on a bench and wanted to interact with us to the delight of his grandmother who told us he had not seen many people because of the pandemic and this was one of his first times being out with other people. He was very cute. After a while Katie and Todd decided to walk across the square to the carousel. So it turned out that Henry didn't want to ride on it but Clara went on it twice. We walked around the fountain with Henry as Clara rode the merry-go-round. She had a blast.

We continued our adventure walking down 6th street passed Christ Church and the grave of Ben Franklin which I had seen many times over the years. It used to be visible from the street through a metal bar section of the wall but that has been bricked over and now they charge $5 to go through the gate and see the grave. We continued down the street passed Independence Hall which had some significant lines and on to Washington Square. We checked out the Bourse Food Hall as a possible lunch spot but it was not inviting to us with the kids pandemically speaking.

We were hungry for lunch and walked past the square to a small take out restaurant Tulula's which was next door to the much fancier but closed at the time Tulula's Garden Restaurant. We would love to go there sometime. Their takeout operation provided us with a wonderful lunch which we took into the park across the street to eat while sitting on benches. Washington Square was a wonderful urban oasis with lots of dog walkers and children playing. We enjoyed our time there.

After the square we headed over to the Reading Terminal Market and walked around in there for awhile before going down the street to the Jefferson Station to take the train back to Mt Airy.

Riding the Train

On Monday holiday October 11th all of us, Katie, Todd, Henry, Clara, Becky and me walked down the street to the Sedgwick Station to take the train downtown for a Center City Adventure. We also walked by that station and under the bridge to get to Clara's pre-school and also to Henry's school.

The kids loved the train ride and enjoyed looking out of the window as the city passed by. They especially liked passing through the Wayne Junction station where there were many old trains along the sidings and others in various states of repair.

Wayne Junction was my local station for me using the Philly commuter train system when I was growing up and also later when I lived there with Becky on Seymour Street. I would often walk down Greene Street to Wayne Junction to take the train downtown and later in the 60's I used it to get to work at Brandywine Products in North Wales. Later still I would sometimes take it to get down to Temple University both for the main campus and also occasionally when I took a class at the Center City campus.

The other day as we passed through the Junction I pointed out my old neighborhood to Todd and we could see the old Saint Francis church. I also showed him the Point tavern that I spent a lot of time at and is now a daycare center. As a teenager we also hung out at the Wayne Junction Diner.

We took the train down to the Jefferson Station which is the new name for the Market East Station. A lot has changed with the Philly train system since I rode it regularly in the 1960's and 1970's. I've only been on the train a very few times since the major reorganization of the system in the 1980's but have been riding it regularly on our visits since Katie and Todd moved to Philly four years ago. One time we also rode it from the airport to the Sedgwick Station down the street. Very convenient except for the luggage issue. Going to the airport had traditionally been a very long and stressful drive. It was a wonderful improvement when the trains began running between the airport and center city. However, because of our large bags we've recently been taking Lyft rides to and from the airport. 

We arrived at the Jefferson Station and I was surprised again at how beautiful the station was and how different things were from when I was regularly there. In 1984 the City and SEPTA completed the Commuter Tunnel that was started in 1978 and connected all the rail lines into one system. The Market East Station also went into service in 1984 replacing the Reading Terminal Station. The whole SEPTA rail system suddenly became much more efficient.

I was very much aware of the old system as a kid using the train because of the two lines going up to Chestnut Hill. There was the Chestnut Hill East line that was part of the old Pennsylvania Railroad and then there was the Chestnut Hill West line that was part of the old Reading Railroad. Both Chestnut Hill stations were within a couple of blocks from my grandmother's house and both lines went through Germantown. The Germantown Station was on the Pennsy line which went to 30th Street Station and the Suburban Station in Center City. Wayne Junction was on the Reading line and would take me downtown to the Reading Terminal. The real difference was where the two lines took us to the suburbs and beyond which really didn't matter to me until the summer of 1968 when I was taking the train to work. Later when we moved to Harleysville I would sometimes take the train in Lansdale down to the Reading Terminal.

So we walked through the station with the kids and Clara was excited about the escalator. Then we had our Center City Adventure. We had a wonderful day and when it was time to go back home we walked to the train station and got tickets from the kiosk. I should note that if we lived in Philly riding all of the SEPTA train, subways and busses would be free because we are over 65. Back on the train the kids once again were glued to the windows watching the city pass by as we headed back to Mt Airy.

Flying Again

Becky and I had not been on an airplane since the pandemic began in early 2020. We had a couple of airline trips in 2019 and then we purchased plane tickets to Philadelphia for March 2020 that we cancelled because of the coronavirus. American Airlines held our tickets and initially we were given a year to use them. Then they extended the tickets until the end of the calendar year. We were planning to visit the kids in Philadelphia in October so we decided to use the airline tickets instead of driving. I called customer service at American Airlines and gave them our ticket numbers for the unused trip and they transferred the tickets to our October flights. We booked flights from Buffalo to Philadelphia for October 8 and return to Buffalo on October 18. A nice ten days with our grandchildren, We are a little apprehensive about being in an airport and the plane ride but fortunately it is a short hour long trip. I can't imagine what it would be like masked with all those people crowded on a cross country or to Europe flight must be like. They say the air filter systems on planes make it safe.

After we arranged for the tickets I was getting cold feet about flying. I always liked our October drive to Philadelphia which we have been doing for over forty years. I don't particularly like flying. I will certainly put up with it to go to Europe but I really wish America had high speed trains like most other modern industrial nations. I checked with the airlines and found that since we purchased these tickets with a slight increase in fare they were good for another year. I was thinking that we could then use them in January when we fly down to Philly for the birth of our new granddaughter. However, Becky really wanted to fly on this trip because it took so much less time. When we drive down it is a seven hour trip and sometimes more because we often stop for a long lunch in a restaurant. Since we started visiting Katie in Mt Airy it was a longer drive instead of going to Betsy's house and we were sometimes stopping half way to stay overnight in a motel to break up the trip. Now with Sean living in eastern NY we would drive there for four hours, visit with them, and then drive the four hours to Philly a day or so later. That will happen some time but not this week.

Flying can take up a lot of time too and usually about five or six hours by the time we leave the house and get to Katie's home. Getting to the airport in the morning, being there a little early because of lines, etc., potential delays which have happened many times, and then after getting luggage going from the airport to Katie's house. We've taken the train from the airport to Mt Airy but the bags are an issue. We plan to take a Lyft.

When we get there and are staying for ten days without a car we can use a Lyft ride to get around. There are too many of us now to all fit in Katie's car. Fortunately there are plenty of restaurants within walking distance of their home.

Anyway, we are flying tomorrow and we will need to get up very early.  Our flight leaves Buffalo at 8 am and arrives in Philly at 9:24. We need to leave for the airport by at least 6 am so rather than take a chance with a Lyft ride I booked Buffalo Airport Taxi Service for the trip.

I need to get up about 5 am tomorrow so I got to put an end to this now.

The Secret Guests

The Secret Guests by Benjamin Black, 2019

I love reading books by Benjamin Black and John Banville who of course is the same person. I think this is my ninth book by him that I've read.

I had been reading of lot of Irish crime novels recently from several authors that have mostly taken place in Belfast during the Irish Troubles. This book fit right in although it takes place a few years earlier in the Irish Republic rather than Northern Ireland. It was a very entertaining work of historical fiction.

This story is based on incidents that take place during World War II and concerns the hiding of the British royal princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in neutral Ireland during the London bombing blitz. It seemed like something right out of The Crown TV show. This was a time when children from every English social class were being sent to the countryside for their safety.

The girls are hidden on a rural Irish estate and an Irish detective and English secret agent are charged with protecting them not only from German spies but also the IRA who slip in from Belfast. This was a well written and wonderfully entertaining novel. The author has a way with the peculiar class and social mores of Great Britain.

I gave this book five stars in Goodreads. 

Time for a New TV

I wasn't sure how long we've had our current television and I just looked at the back panel on this Toshiba flat screen TV and saw a stamp for October 2008 so that was when it was manufactured or put on the market. We've had this TV for thirteen years.

For the past couple of months it started to display broken lines on the right side of the screen that would last about ten minutes before going back to normal. When it is doing that line thing it is almost impossible to watch and at some moments it is rather comical in the distortion. 

We put up with it for a couple of weeks hoping it would go back to normal but we soon decided to get a new television and began researching what to get next. However, we had a lot going on and didn't find the time to go out shopping. It wasn't critical because we would just turn on the television, walk away for a while and then sit down to watch after the broken lines went away.

We're going to Philadelphia for ten days and we will deal with the television problem when we get back. I'm looking forward to getting one of those new smart TVs.

Flu Shot 2021

Today I got my flu shot for 2021. I get a flu shot every year and have been for a long time. Most of the time over the years I got the shot at my doctor's office during a regular visit. The past couple of years I've just gotten the shot at my regular Walgreens pharmacy. It's been very easy.

It was easy today too. Walked up to the counter after waiting briefly for two very old ladies standing side by side arranging for their Covid vaccination booster shots. It took me a couple of minutes to fill out some paperwork but most of my info was already in their system so this process was very quick. After completing the form I had a very short wait sitting in a chair before getting called for my shot.

The entire process took about 15 minutes. Good to go. Becky is getting her flu shot tomorrow at CVS.

I didn't get a flu shot last year. Did anyone? Was there a flu season? People were not interacting with each other and people wore mask if they were with other folks. It was a very strange year. This year is better but still very weird. People are still wearing mask and today in the store getting my flu shot I had a mask on at all times. Perhaps this will be another mild flu season because so many people will be wearing mask when they go out which will help stop the spread of the flu.