Sick Again Pt 2

This cough and cold had been getting worse. I'm constantly blowing my nose and loudly coughing. The cough has evolved over the past few days and has gotten much more intense with lots of raspy wheezing. Now my abdomen hurts each time I cough. I decided to contact my doctor to get some serious medications and information.

I went on the patient portal a few days ago and sent this message:

Dr. Charles

I’m contacting you about a very severe cold that has my wife and I concerned. I have a runny nose, sneezing and constant cough that is harsh, raspy, wet and congested.  I get a pain in my abdomen each time I cough. However, I have not had any fever, sore throat or fatigue. This is my second bad cold since April. The first lasted two weeks but was not as severe or intense as this one. I’m a little over a week into this second cold. I am fairly sure I got both colds from recent visits with grandchildren. I tested negative for Covid-19 near the beginning of each cold. I’ve been taking ibuprofen and pseudoephedrine capsules every day along with tussin cough syrup, zinc tablets and lots of Echinacea immune support tea. Plenty of bed rest too.

Is there any other medication or treatment that you would recommend? Any over the counter medications beyond what I am doing that would help? Do I need to come in to the office to see someone or televisit? I’ve also been looking at information on medical sites and realize I may have to ride this out another week or two before seeking medical help but I wanted to bring this to your attention.

Also, I will be coming in for an annual checkup in August. I wanted to double check on my pneumonia and shingles shots. I know I received the first shots but I’m not sure about the second ones. Do my records indicate I need the follow-up shots? If so then I can go to a pharmacy and get that done.

Thanks,

George Emery

My doctor's office contacted me about twenty minutes after posting my message. Dr. Charles had read my document and wanted to address the issues. A nurse called me a couple of hours later and we discussed my symptoms. The first person I had spoken with earlier had recommended that I get a PCR Covid-19 test even though I had just taken a rapid home test. She really wanted to make sure that I was not suffering from the coronavirus. 

She also got me three prescriptions of cold medicines including tablets for my cough, some antihistamine congestion tablets and a nasal spray. Plus I was to continue with my over the counter medicines. 

I got the PCR test over at the temporary setup in a parking lot on Hertel Avenue. It was a quick process where they stuck a swap down my throat. I was in and out in about twenty minutes including the paperwork. It still took a couple of days to get the results which were negative. I think they got my email wrong because I had to call them to get the results which they said was sent. They sent it again and I was able to take the email attachment and send that on to my doctor's office.

Here it is four days after getting the medication from the nurse and I'm still sick. Now Becky is coughing too. I've been sick now for about a week and a half.

Vinegar Joe 1972

In 1972 I was in a record store in downtown Philly while home on leave after returning from a six month Med cruise. There was an album playing and some people talking about it. Now of course this was a very common occurrence back in the days when hanging out in a record store was a great place to hear new music and find out about new bands. These guys were excited about this new blues rock band from London and their great woman singer. The name of the band I found out was Vinegar Joe. 

I bought a copy of the album Vinegar Joe which was released in 1972. In early 1973 I bought their second album Rock 'n Roll Gypsies that was released in late 1972. They broke up a year later.

They had two lead singers, male and female, and both went on to successful solo careers. Elkie Brooks and Robert Palmer. I played their first album a lot during the 70's but the second one not so much. I now occasionally will go upstairs and spin that vinyl of Vinegar Joe. I somehow never scanned that album into my iTunes or on the hard drive.

Another Mass Shooting

Another mass shooting occurred in an elementary school in Texas yesterday. Nineteen kids and a teacher were killed. All were Hispanic.  The shooter was an 18 year old  young man dressed in military gear and armed with a couple assault rifles he went out and got after his recent birthday. Sound familiar? Oh, and he shot his grandmother before heading over to the local elementary school.

I think it is time for Americans to take control of the term Pro Life away from the right wing anti-abortion folks and apply it to gun control. Millions of Americans should march in front of gun stores, NRA buildings, gun fairs, shooting ranges and anywhere the gun nuts gather. People should be marching carrying sings that say Pro Life against gun violence and murder weapons. Every gun store should have a group of people with Pro Life signs asking the gun customers why they think they need guns. Engage in conversation. Look for compromise.

I also think Americans should begin to lobby for the repeal of the 2nd Amendment which of course as anyone familiar with real American history, and not the whitewashed version we were told in school, the 2nd Amendment was insisted on and put in place by the slave holders to help them maintain control of their property. The so called well regulated militia was in place to prevent slave rebellions and to provide armed men to ensure runaway slaves were found and brought back to their labor camps.

Now of course we know that repealing the 2nd Amendment won't happen anytime soon but if one side is saying do nothing at all then the other side should take the opposite position and then maybe eventually there may be some compromise in the middle somewhere.

Sick Again

I mentioned in an earlier post that Katie and Todd almost did not come to Buffalo last weekend because Henry was sick from school on Thursday and had a bad cough. They drove to Buffalo on Friday anyway when he was feeling better but he did cough a lot over the weekend while staying with us. Well, a couple of days after they left and went back home to Philly I got that cough. It was enough to convince us not to drive down to Philly this weekend for the Germantown reunion party which we were already very hesitant to take for other reasons but getting this cold made that decision easy and insightful. I can't imagine being down there with a bunch of old people coughing my brains out.

It also turned out that Katie is also sick now along with Clara and Violet. I was talking to her yesterday and she was upset to hear that I was sick and Mom too but not as bad as me. Henry was feeling bad about giving his family the cold. I hope nobody from Todd's family got the cold from Henry at their party. Katie took a covid test and was negative.

So now I'm back on those cold medicines and trying to get more sleep. It's also been cool and rainy here. Hopefully I can kick this over the next few days. I don't want another two week cold like last month.

My immune system is still compromised somewhat because of our mostly living in a pandemic bubble and not getting exposed to the common colds that circulate so much in the spring. I haven't gone out much and when I do I've been wearing a mask in public except for some of our recent family get-togethers.  I got a bad cold during our last trip to Philly and now another one.

Over the course of our life we have always had gotten sick from our kids bringing home germs from school and daycare but it happened so often that we build up a certain amount of immunity. That continued long after the kids grew up because Becky and I both worked on college campuses where the students were constantly exposing us to colds and various illnesses with the expected results. We got sick a lot but not always seriously. Colds would come and go. Things are a little different now since we are no longer constantly exposed to the student germs and now a little bit of exposure gets us sick. I guess that is a downside to being retired during a pandemic.

Update: I took a Covid-19 test and was negative. I knew this felt like a regular cold and I wanted to make sure especially if I were to call the doctor's office.

The Matrix... Again

I saw some promotions online about a new Matrix movie showing on HBO Max. What caught my attention was that the screenplay was written by one of my favorite science fiction writers David Mitchell who wrote Cloud Atlas among others.

The first Matrix movie was released in 1999 and the two follow up sequels were both released in 2003. I remembered liking the first film and wasn't sure if I had even seen the other two. So I watched all three this past week in preparation of watching the the brand new fourth film. It turns out I saw the second movie but not the third one. Apparently I opted out after the second and I really did understand why. The second and third films were boring and totally redundant. They really overplayed everything and especially the gunfights and martial arts combat scenes. Here they go again, another special effects fight scene. Again and again. 

Devo Satisfaction

One of my favorite cover songs... Devo doing the Rolling Stones' I Can't Get No Satisfaction in 1978. Becky and I were listening to one of my extensive cover version mixes the past couple of days and we had a discussion on the pros and cons of cover songs. My covers mix collection has nearly 1,200 songs and I could probably add quite a few more. They are all from my iTunes collection on my hard drive. 

Today I saw this New Yorker article from 2017 in my FB feed. They must have heard me and Becky talking about cover songs. I especially liked the description of Mick Jagger when he first heard Devo's version.

The Story Behind Devo's Iconic Cover of the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction.

Here is Devo performing Satisfaction on Saturday Night Live in 1978.

Katie and the Kids in Town

They're back, they're here. We were just down at their house visiting them for nine days over Easter week and then three weeks later they are in Buffalo. We love it.

Actually it was a short visit this time. They were in town for a party and dinner with Todd's extended family. The plan was for them to drive all day Friday and then stay with us here until Tuesday morning when they would drive home. The family party was on Saturday late afternoon at the Terrace restaurant in the Casino in Delaware Park. The follow up dinner was at 8 pm at the Trattoria Aroma restaurant on Bryant St. 

Poor Henry got very sick on the Thursday before the trip and after talking with Kate on the phone we thought the trip would be cancelled which would be the right thing to do if he was sick with something that he could spread to the older people at the party and with us too. Fortunately he was feeling better the next day and although they had a late start they made the trip that Friday. They drove all day and made it to our house in the evening just before the kid's bedtime. 

Although Henry coughed a lot over the weekend he seemed fine most of the time except for during the actual party at the Terrace. He slept in the stroller for most of the party. They came home early from the party to drop off the kids and put them to bed. All three were fine and went to bed OK. Kate and Todd then went out by themselves to the dinner with Todd's family. The kids were fine and slept throughout the night without incidents. Katie and Todd had a good time.

We had a wonderful time with the kids throughout the rest of the long weekend. The weather was supposed to be chilly and rainy but stayed warm and sunny most of the time. On Sunday they went downtown to spend some time with Todd's parents down at Canalside while Becky and I had a gardening day. When they got back we had a nice takeout dinner from Kostas. Everything was great.

It was rainy a little on Monday afternoon so Katie and Todd decided to take the kids down to the Science Museum. Becky and I stayed home and got the house ready for some guests coming that evening. Dick and Iris were coming and also Dave, Donna and Mary. The kids had a fun time at the museum and then everyone enjoyed hanging out together. The kids had both sets of grandparents. Dave and Donna were particularly taken with little Violet. It was the first time they had seen her. We had some nice take-out pizza and wings from La Nova. 

On Tuesday morning it was very sad as we said goodbye to the kids. We had to take Henry and Clara to the backyard for them to say goodbye to the bunnies. They got in their new hybrid minivan and were off to Philly. We went back in the house and realized how exhausted we were. Lots of laundry to do and kid's stuff to put away. Henry especially loved his new bed. It could be folded up and rolled away but we are keeping it right where it is.

Henry's Innovative Drawings

Henry was doing some drawings while visiting us here. He needed more paper and Becky got him a small pad from one of our drawers. It turned out to be a pad of notepaper from one of my Innovative Interfaces conferences and it was faintly embossed with the word Innovative in a pattern on the paper. He was fascinated with this paper and decided to fill in the letters with different colors.

He had a great time with that pad of paper and kept him busy for an afternoon. This filling in the letters was just a start. And a few more days too.

Terrorism and Murder in Buffalo

Today the city of Buffalo was traumatized by a white supremacist terrorists and murderer who came to our community from a rural area of southern New York State near the Pennsylvania to specifically target black people while a wearing bullet vest and carrying military grade assault weapons. He went into a Tops Market on Jefferson Avenue where he was confronted by a retired policeman security guard who he then shot and killed. He then went on a shooting spree where ten black people were killed and three other people wounded.

He then surrendered to the police. My first thought was did they take him to McDonalds before going to the police station but perhaps that is unfair. Probably not. If he had been a black man shooting up a supermarket in Amherst he would have surely been shot dead. The shooter was 18 years old and streamed the shooting live on a social media site that catered to white supremacists. He also wrote an online manifesto based on the Fox News' Tucker Carlson white replacement rantings. 

Coincidently I had just finished reading Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents the day before this racists shooting and there was a section of the book where the conspiracy theory of white replacement was discussed. It was shocking to have this incident happen so soon after reading so much about the history of racists violence in this country.

It was also disturbing that Katie, Todd and the kids were here in town visiting us and Todd's family while this was going on. They were downtown during the shooting. I had several friends and family members contact me to make sure we were all OK. The shooting occurred about six blocks from our home and a couple of blocks down the street from the college where I worked for twenty years. All of the people killed while shopping on a Saturday afternoon were the pillars of their community.

Caste

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, 2020

I heard of this book being referred to as an instant classic. I recently read her book The Warmth of Other Suns which I found fascinating and insightful. It was also a history of America that had been covered up. The same could be said for her new book here.

I was talking about Isabel Wilkerson with Katie when we were down at her house last month and she said she had a copy of her new book which she hadn't read yet. She lent me the book.

I read the book over the next couple of weeks. It was one of those books that I had to put down every now and then and ponder what I had just read because it was so disturbing. It was an extraordinary perspective on American history that was both highly personal but also painted a damning and widespread critique of our society. The book describes racism in our society as a caste system of social stratification using hierarchy, purity, inclusion and exclusion. The author compares the American system of caste with the Indian caste system and with the Nazi Germany treatment of their Jewish population.

She goes on to describe the caste system and how it applies to America including the use of bible scriptures to justify Black inferiority, heritability and the one drop of blood rule to determine Black ancestry, the endogamy prohibition of interracial sex and marriage with the US anti-miscegenation laws, purity and pollution as shown by the segregation of laws concerning separate facilities for bathing, eating, water fountains, schools, etc. Jim Crow laws restricted Black people in America to jobs as domestics and farm workers and were dehumanized and stigmatized in social situations, ridiculed in racists ways in popular culture, and then terrorized with beatings and lynchings. I was particularly moved by the many personal descriptions of racism both in this book and her previous one.

It had me thinking about the fight against racism I have seen in my lifetime which has included the segregated drinking fountains and restaurants, school desegregation, the marches and the drive for voting rights, Martin Luther King, the race riots, black power, etc, etc and leading up to the election of the first Black president of the US.

Update: I did finish this book while Katie was here and she took it back with her to Philly to read.

Basement Water Leak Pt. 2

The plumber show up late Thursday afternoon and was very surprised to hear about the situation as I explained it to him. He was very curious to see how it happened as he looked around the basement. 

First he turned on the valve to see what would happen and of course immediately the water started flowing down the wall and along the cold air return onto my workbench. We had to get a bucket for the water. It was also very loud. He quickly turned off the valve but he couldn't see where the water was coming from. He cut a piece of the pegboard on the wall but still did not know what was happening. Then he cut the pipe from both sides of the wall and removed that length of the copper pipe. At that point he could see the rupture in the middle of the pipe where the water had been gushing out. It was a big hole in the pipe. 

He speculated that the pipe may have been frozen over the winter and burst. We had a series of fairly mild winters in recent years since that water line and valves were installed about five or six years ago. However, this past winter which everyone had agreed had felt very much like an old school Buffalo winter and had been the most intense in a very long time. So maybe that pipe did freeze and burst. Then when I opened the valve this spring the water came gushing out into the basement.

He suggested that at the end of the season we close the valve to the main water line and then drain that and then pipe to the outside faucet. Then leave the faucet open so that the pipe can expand to prevent freezing. He also said we could put some insulation in that wall. We'll need to look into it more but for now the pipe was replaced and Becky can easily water the front garden and lawn.

May 88 Degrees

Very early this morning at about 3:30 am I woke up to a very  bright moon shining into the bedroom window. I took a quick picture. We had our fans on last night. It was hot.

Yesterday the high was 88 degrees according to our thermometer outside our home. The official temperature for the city was 86 which tied the all time high temperature for that day in Buffalo. 

The temperature inside our backyard sunroom was 94. That was even after installing the screens in the windows earlier this week. Yesterday it was really too hot to garden.

Fortunately yesterday we had the plumber come by and fix the pipe leading to the garden hose spigot in the front of the house but that is another story. Becky was able to give the front garden a good soaking.

I don't remember it ever being this warm this early in the spring here. It has been in the mid 80's for the past two days and is predicted to be so today too. Tomorrow the temperatures will go down with the rain and next week should be more seasonable.

Covid One Million

Today it was announced by the US Health Dept. that one million Americans have officially died of Covid-19 during this current outbreak of the disease. The US has had a much larger infection rate than most of the industrialized countries of the world. There has also been no official counting method for determining the actual number of deaths from Covid-19. 

How does a nation mark such a tragic milestone.

The New York Times has had a group of journalist since the beginning of the pandemic that have been collecting and publishing national coronavirus data

How The Times and others count the unfathomable number of a million U.S. virus deaths - Link here.

Trump was always downplaying the coronavirus and the potential number of deaths and claimed America would never see 100,000 fatalities. He was certainly an incredible pathetic incompetent when it came to anything to do with the pandemic. 

Dinner at Shango

We just had a wonderful dinner tonight at one of our favorite restaurants... Shango New Orleans Bistro and Wine Bar. We also had a gift card to use from Ashley and Sean. We decided to go there for Mother's Day. Well, a few days after the holiday.

We waited for a warm day because we wanted to make sure the garage door front of the restaurant was open that would supply plenty of fresh air throughout the dining area. We sat in the first booth near the open area that provided us with some level of protection. We haven't been to many restaurants since the beginning of the pandemic more than two years ago. We were there for six pm reservations and there were about a dozen people having dinner.

The menu was fantastic as usual with lots of wonderful specials but we went back to a couple of old favorites and ordered po'boy sandwiches. I had the blackened catfish and Becky had shrimp. The sandwiches included their fantastic honey dripped sweet potato fries and delicious coleslaw. I also had a bowl of their gumbo.

They always have a great beer selection that is constantly rotated and I was surprised and happy to find another old favorite on tap. So I started off with Flower Power IPA from Ithaca Brewery. Becky had a glass of Sofie Farmhouse Saison Ale from Goose Island Beer Co. I followed mine up with a New England Style IPA from K2 Brothers Brewing out of Rochester.

I cleaned my plate and Becky brought home a bit of her sandwich to have tomorrow. We ran into a couple we knew there and I stopped John to say hi as he was walking by where he stood and chatted for nearly twenty minutes. He was the former owner of the Sterling Place restaurant that was located next door to the art store in the early 90's. We used to stop by there every Thursday night for a couple of beers after the store closed at 8 pm. John just went on and on. He was very happy to see us and wanted to talk about the old landlord Brinkworth and many other experiences from that time so long ago.

Speed Humps

There has been some discussion this week on the upcoming summer installation of traffic slowing speed humps on our street that had recently been approved and scheduled by the city. I always referred to them as speed bumps but in Buffalo they are humps instead of bumps. Whatever you call them I'm for it and said so in a neighborhood survey last year.

It has always been a problem with people from the northern suburbs cutting through our neighborhood and speeding down our street during rush hour on their way to or from the expressway downtown. They try to avoid Main Street and come down Crescent Ave instead. We see it every day. Just this week I was sitting on the porch thinking about what it would be like with those speed humps on the street. I could picture seeing one from my chair and imagining the traffic slowing down to a reasonable speed or perhaps a drastically reduced volume if there was no benefit to driving down our street.

So I am looking forward to the speed humps on our street and throughout the neighborhood and even more so when I sit there watching cars speeding down the street. Everyday I marvel at the total disregard of speeding drivers to the people of the neighborhood. When I was working down the street at Canisius College I would often purposefully drive slow down my street after work to the chagrin of the many drivers wanting to drive too fast on my block. It felt good to feel their frustration.

Walking by the Zoo

Earlier today we took a walk in Delaware Park. It was a beautiful sunny breezy Sunday afternoon in May and the park was crowded. We walked along the path next to the zoo which was in the process of closing for the day. There were a lot of people making their way to the parking lot and others were walking home in the neighborhood or into the park. People were walking, riding bikes and roller skating all along the ring road. A perfect day in the park.

As we came around the back of the zoo we saw a group of large animal and circus like displays that were stored there. It looked like there was going to be some event happening soon in the zoo. We walked around to the Parkside Avenue side on our way home and saw more of the displays that had been assembled and placed throughout the zoo. Something was certainly happening.

Katie and the kids will be visiting us this weekend and usually spend an afternoon at the zoo. It looks like there will be something special for them when they here.

Well, that is what I originally thought until I went to the zoo website and looked at events. The displays are part of an upcoming zoo fundraising event called Zoomagination: The Festival of Lanterns and Lights which will run on Thursday thru Sunday evenings 6:30 to 10:30 pm from June 2 to Aug 7.

It's probably not something we would take the grandkids to if they were in town during that time period but it would be fun for them to see the unlit displays during a regular day visit to the zoo. We'll see.

All The Light We Cannot See

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, 2014.

Just finished reading this wonderful novel in about five days. I really couldn't put it down and would have finished it sooner if I wasn't also trying to finish up a nonfiction book at the same time. 

This is an amazing novel about two young people experiencing World War II from different perspectives whose lives collide during the war. A young blind French teenager who is part of the Resistance and a teenage German boy in the occupying army tracking down the French partisans. The book is very well written and the story is gripping as the author explores the lives of these two young people.

I decided to read this novel when I saw that there was a new Netflix television series coming next year based on this book. I saw that the library had the e-book but there was a long waiting list. I put a hold on it several months ago and then suddenly last week there it was available to me. I grabbed it and started reading. I knew I had to finish it right away as I was notified there were a lot of people waiting for it after me. Otherwise it would have been a long time before I got it again. As it turned out I didn't need that waiting list for prodding. I needed to keep reading and finishing this book as soon as I could because it was that goo. Highly recommended.

Bryers Ice Cream... Not

Becky got some free Breyers Ice Cream from Dash's Market recently that was part of  their rewards program. We were sitting at the kitchen table enjoying our ice cream after dinner. The flavor was Heath with a big splashy logo sign that exclaimed "made with 100% real Heath Toffee pieces". 

Well, as I was this really delicious ice cream I started reading the fine print and the list of ingredients on the box. I was surprised to see that nowhere on the packaging were the words "ice cream". The largest lettering describing what we were eating said "Frozen Dairy Dessert".  So we weren't eating ice cream like we thought and we decided to look up Breyers online which revealed some interesting stories about their ice cream.

Apparently some of Breyers flavors fail to meet a basic criteria for being ice cream set by the US Dept. of Agriculture and cannot by law use the phrase "ice cream" on those products. They are therefore called "frozen dairy dessert" which actually means not ice cream. According to the Food and Drug Administration ice cream has at least 10% dairy fat and a frozen diary dessert does not.

Breyers began in Philadelphia in 1866 and was later bought out by Kraft Foods. More recently the company was absorbed into the Unilever multinational conglomerate. 

Becky and I also talked about having "ice milk" as kids. Later in the early 1990's the government regulators allowed food companies to call that particular product "low fat ice cream" rather than ice milk. So any low fat ice cream on the shelves today is what we called ice milk back in the day.

Folding Bed

The grandkids are getting bigger and there are more of them. We needed more space for them to sleep. We were considering a dual bed type arrangement where one would fold under the other. In the end Becky found a nice fold up rolling bed that would do the job from Wayfair and we had it shipped to us. She also ordered sheets for it.

The bed sits low and fits nicely in the room along the wall where the keyboard had been setup. I moved the keyboard upstairs where it can still be used. Henry will sleep in the new bed and Clara will sleep in Sean's old bed. We have a gate in place to keep her from falling out of bed. She is used to sleeping now on a double bed. So Henry and Clara will both share the same room at our house just as they do at home.

I have the pack 'n play baby crib in Katie's room. I've moved Becky's drawing table and found a new place for it folded up next to the dresser. Of course I had to find a place for the four folding chairs that had been stored in that spot next to the dresser. They found a new home on the third floor landing. It seems I was doing a lot of moving stuff around to make this new bed thing happen. Hopefully everyone will be comfortable.

Basement Water Leak

Becky wanted to water some new plants she just put into the ground out in the front garden. I got the hose reel out of the shed and hooked it up to the faucet in the front of the house. Then I went inside and down to the basement to turn it on. When I opened the valve to the front faucet there was a loud sound of rushing water in the pipes. I didn't sound right. I thought I may have left the faucet open outside and I was hearing water going through the pipes before spilling out on the walkway along the side of the house. It all sounded different and wrong.

I went outside and checked the faucet but it was shut and there was no water on the ground. I quickly went back down to the basement and saw to my shocked surprise that there was water gushing down the wall and splashing all over my work bench and soaking my tools including the power tools too. I was also really worried about the several electric outlets.

I ran to the other back room where the valve was located and quickly shut it. The water stopped. I spent some time cleaning up and moving the tools into another room. Then I called the plumber who installed the water line and valves a few years ago. Since the valve was shut and the water was no longer leaking it was not considered an emergency. It would take several days for the plumber to come out and fix the pipe.

I couldn't understand what had happened and also couldn't see what happened. Their was obviously a large break in the water line to spew that much water. It certainly wasn't a small leak in the pipe but it all happened out of sight behind the pegboard wall or in the rafters between the two rooms.

It would be almost a week before we could get everything working again and in the meantime Becky was using a watering can to take care of her plants.

Andrew's Wagon

During our recent long weekend with Sean and Ashley they brought out a wagon for taking walks in the neighborhood with Andrew. This wagon was awesome. I've seen people walking around our neighborhood with kids in a wagon but this was a way better vehicle than any other I'd seen. It also had a Jeep logo on the side.

We walked with Sean and Andrew over to Delaware Park and along the ring road by the zoo. The wagon was very cool. When they weren't using it Sean put it in our sunroom. It would fold up nicely to fit in the back of their car.

Santana 1972-1974

I was listening to a lot of Flora Purim's Brazilian Latin fusion jazz this week after the release of her final album at the age of 80. Then I put on the Santana albums she sang on which got me into a lot of Santana from that period 1972 to 1974. I ended up listening to several studio albums from that time and also that awesome three record live set Lotus released in 1974.

I always loved the early Santana albums. The first three were great but the next three along with the duet album with John McLaughlin were intensely sublime and uniquely challenging as Carlos Santana went on his spiritual journey.

The first time I saw Santana perform in concert in 1969 they will actually billed as the Santana Blues Band. I saw them again in 1970 and then again in 1974 when they were in their Latin jazz fusion and John Coltrane influenced period. 

• Caravanserai, 1972
• Welcome, 1973
• Love Devotion Surrender, 1973
• Borboletta, 1974
• Lotus, 1974

Glass of Beer - Idyll Days Pilsner

Idyll Days Pilsner, an unfiltered Belgian style lager, from Ommegang Brewery, NY which is of course one of my all time favorite breweries. This is a very full flavored but smooth and subtle with that distinctive Belgian yeast that characterizes many of the beers coming out of Ommegang's cellars. Awesome beer. Love it.

This is one of several pint cans of New York beers that Sean brought to me on his recent weekend visit. Looking forward to checking out the rest of that stash.

Very intense reading material too.

Pandemonium and Cuddles

We sometimes lovingly refer to our little one year old grandson Andrew as "Bam-Bam", the little blonde tyke from the Flintstones.  Especially when he is in our kitchen banging the pots and pans on the floor. He just loves making noise and grabbing those heavy pans and pounding them to the floor. We sometimes fear for his little feat. 

He loved exploring our home. This was the first time he was here and fully walking around. Of course he soon realized he could walk in circles through the house and he discovered the brightly colored pottery and glassware that Becky had stored in some cabinets that he figured out how to open. The other kids never tried to open those cabinets but every child is different. We will need to have some kid locks on those cabinets for his next visit. 

He wasn't always Bam-Bam. He would often stop his running around to give a hug and cuddles. He had his very special quiet loving moments too. He loves coming over to me and laying his head against me. It feels so wonderful. 

Dave and Donna came stopped by to see him and his parents and they had a wonderful time getting to know Andrew a little. They had just been to NYC to see their grandson Sonny. Donna was particularly impressed by how much Andrew was "a boy" and a burly one too.

We had a very nice visit with Ashley, Sean and Andrew. We had just been to their place a few weeks ago for Andrew's first birthday and he has already changed so much. He was just taking some steps that weekend and now he is running around. He also started pointing at people and things. Very cute. 

We are so fortunate to have four grandchildren and to have them relatively close by.

We are looking forward to a visit next week with Katie, Todd, Henry, Clara and Violet.