Dinner @ The Terrace

This evening we had a wonderful wedding anniversary dinner at The Terrace in Delaware Park. We made reservations earlier in the week and had decided Thursday at 6:30 pm would be a good time. It was a perfect weather evening. As we approached the park we realized that there was a Shakespeare in the Park performance at 7 on this evening. The neighborhood was very parked up already and there were people everywhere with portable chairs walking toward the stage which was a little ways behind the restaurant. We were very fortunate to find a good parking space right away without a lot of looking and it was only a short walk. We were a few minutes early so we walked over to performance area to have a look. It was going to be a fun night there. When we walked over to the restaurant we realized it was going to be a fun night there too. Along the way a guy in a golf cart offered us a ride from our car to the performance site. We happily declined and thought it must have been all the grey hair. He was very nice.

We were seated right away at a great table under an umbrella along the rail overlooking the lake. We had a wonderful view of the many people enjoying the park and going on boat rides on the lake including the big pink flamingo paddle boats. Later in the evening we watched the buy working with the boats take the rowboats out to the middle of the lake and tie them to a buoy. Then he went back and took about a dozen of the pink flamingo paddle boats all strung together and left them tied to another buoy in the middle of the lake. That was a lot of rowing pulling all of those boats out there. Then he rowed himself back to the boat dock and went home for the night. We speculated that there must have been some incident at some time that made the boat company decide not to leave there boats tied to the dock where people could get to them overnight. 

The service at the restaurant was wonderful and the place was full too. Every table was in use and there were a lot on that patio terrace. I don't know if there was an event on the lower level. Sometimes there have private parties or wine tastings. Our servers were very attentive to our needs all night.

We started off with some wine and eventually had two glasses each. Becky had some nice rose and I had a wonderful Italian verdicchio white wine. Becky had Shrimp and Grits and I had the Mix Grill Jambalaya. Everything was great. 

During the evening we did see a couple standing along the lake front down below us having a marriage proposal moment with someone videotaping it. People on the patio in the restaurant cheered the happy couple. It was a very fun and moving moment. The crowd in the restaurant really enjoyed it. Actually all the people having dinner there were all having a great time.

When we left at around 8 pm the Shakespeare in the Park was still going on. The guy with the golf cart once again asked us if we wanted a ride back to our car. It was such a wonderful night and we said we really wanted to walk along the park for a bit and we appreciated his offer. It's nice that the park offers that service and I'm sure there are some people there that would take advantage of the opportunity for a ride. We were home about fifteen minutes later.

The last time we had dinner there was in December for my birthday. 

The Other Anniversary This Week

Becky and I are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate our 42nd wedding anniversary that was two days ago. I did a Facebook post for the anniversary but instead of putting up our usual wedding pictures or other photos of us as a couple I posted a series of pictures of us with our grandchildren. I did that because I feel very grateful to have been able to experience our grandchildren.

It was 33 years ago today that I underwent a lifesaving brain surgery to put a titanium clip on an aneurysm that the surgeon later told us was ready to rupture. The operation went well except for a reaction to the anesthesia triggered by Malignant Hyperthermia that caused a rapid increase in body temperature. I woke up shivering in the ICU packed in ice. Not fun. Becky was very relieved when I recognized her right away and was able to answer questions from the doctors. It was nice to get out of the hospital by the holiday weekend.

Throughout my early adult life I never expected to live to an old age or to know my grandchildren because of that potential brain aneurysm that I always felt was lurking there in my head. Well, it turned out there were several of them but the big one was clipped and the others have been closely monitored over the years. I'm up to 22 brain scans and counting.

My grandfather, George J. Emery, 1897-1950, had 34 grandchildren but only lived long enough to see one of them. My father, George J. Emery, 1922-1970, had 9 grandchildren but died before any of them were born. Brain aneurysms have been a curse in my family. Fortunately medical science had improved enough that I was able to survive early adulthood and make it into my 60's and 70's and to enjoy time with my grandchildren. It is very important to me to be having this experience when my father and grandfather did not. Next week in Long Lake will be very special for me to be with my children and grandchildren.

Summer Time Bug Lights

I've been spending a lot of time this summer in the backyard sunroom and also sitting on a chair on the grass. During most of the evenings there have been a lot of tiny bugs flittering about in the way back of the yard in very large clouds. I can see them from the front of the yard where I sit. The bugs become especially visible in the failing sunlight of the evening dusks. It's amazing to watch them and after several evenings I snapped this picture of them. It was interesting to see how it turned out and I actually found it fascinating. 

Overall the bugs are not too bad in the backyard although they do bother Becky more than me. We keep some Off! spray cans readily available. Sometimes there are some flies or tiny little bugs dropping out of the trees on me when I sit on a chair out back. I never get bothered in the screened sunroom. 

Prior to our hosting our WOW in the backyard later in July I will bug bomb the backyard to ensure folks are not bothered by mosquitos. That worked really well the last time we had a crowd in the backyard.

Backyard Wires Down

Last night I woke up from a loud unusual sound in the backyard. I seemed to know immediately that a large tree branch had come down and probably took the electric wire off the side of the house. I got my glasses and looked out the back window. The wires looked different but I couldn't tell why. I checked the electric power which was still on so I went back to bed. I thought maybe I heard something else.

This morning I checked the backyard and indeed there was a very large tree branch on the ground and it was right on top of our power line which was actually torn off the side of our house but stayed connected. The power line was on the ground for much of the length of the yard. 

I called the power company and reported a down power line on our property. Niagara Mohawk take that very seriously and within the hour two technicians arrived at our home and inspected the downed line in our yard. They called for another tech and waited. There are company rules that state someone from the company must stay with the downed power line because of the potential danger to people. The third tech arrived about another hour later and the three of them discussed the situation at length and were not sure as to how to proceed because they thought the power connection was not in the right place on the wall. I described to them the several previous times the power company had been here to reconnect the power line over the years because of fallen tree branches.

In the meantime I moved the grill and trash cans out of the way. The three technicians then called another truck crew to do the repair. The third tech left and the original two stayed to monitor the fallen power line. 

About an hour later two guys arrived with a ladder on their truck. These were a couple of young guys and I talked with them a little and explained the situation. One of the guys said he had been in our yard before and remembered the red barn in the back. Then they talked for a bit with the two technicians who left the yard to them. I thanked the two techs as they walked out to their two trucks.

I was out front talking to a couple of neighbors when the two guys got their ladder out and fixed everything in about ten minutes. They then explained what they did and everyone was happy. I thanked them as they headed out. They fixed the power line exactly as it had been fixed the other times. I'm just glad we never lost any power during this incident.

After they all left I cut up the tree branch. It was all done by lunch.

Peaking Bunnies

I've been spending a lot of time in the backyard either sitting on an Adirondack chair on the grass or in the sunroom at the table with my laptop. The backyard bunnies have been very active this year and they seem very comfortable with us in the yard and also our neighbors. They will often come within a couple of feet of me while I'm sitting there reading. 

Yesterday evening they were particularly active and there were five of them running around the yard playing and then stopping to munch on the grass. It was all very entertaining.

There was one small bunny that kept coming near me but then would sort of hide in the flowerbed and look at me. Then he would go running around chasing after the other bunnies. A little while later he would be back there at that same spot peaking at me from behind some leaves. I got my phone out and snapped a photo of him. Very cute.

Our granddaughter Clara has been really fascinated with the bunnies in our yard. She would love this little one. On the morning Katie and Todd went back home they brought Henry and Clara out to the backyard to say goodbye to the bunnies. They couldn't see them but knew they were around hiding in the bushes and flowers and would hear their goodbyes. 

When Andrew was here last week we were able to bring him out into the yard just before they left for home to see one of the bunnies. He loved it and walked over to it but of course the bunny quickly took off across the yard flashing her white tail. He got very excited over that little display.

And Then Sick Again...

So I got sick again over Father's Day weekend. It's been a few days now and I feel like I'm going through the cycle of another bad cold which doesn't seem to want to go away. I'm really feeling nervous that spending time with my grandchildren is getting me sick. I think that probably Andrew's exposure to germs at his daycare center is causing me problems but I certainly can't stop hugging that little boy and holding him close. 

It seems that my immune system has been weakened over time. First we both retired and we have no longer been exposed to the two semesters of students exposing us to all kinds of germs. We would get colds back during our working years but they were usually short in duration. Then Covid came along and we've been wearing masks and not going out to crowded bars and restaurants nor concerts, etc. I have also hardly been to any stores over the past couple of years now. 

Now when I do get exposed to a cold I get it really bad and for a long time. So here it is heading into late June and I've been sick for another week again. Maybe I just need to get out more and get my immune system exposed more. LOL.

WOW 2022

The Parkside Wine on Wednesdays began a little late this year but the schedule had finally filled out. Becky and I signed up to host a WOW on July 20th. This will be our first time hosting since 2019. All of 2020 was cancelled and last year there were a few Wednesday night gatherings of the neighborhood but all were sparsely attended. We went to about three for the season. We usually do about 6 WOWs.

We went to the first two WOWs of this year and had a very nice time at both. The first one on the 15th was actually very hot. The one this week was very pleasant weather wise. Both had about 30 people attending which is still significantly lower than the pre-pandemic years where there were usually 40 to 60 people on any given night that had good weather.

We plan to miss the next two and one of which we will be on vacation at Long Lake. Then we come back and host ours. I'm sure we'll go to a few more throughout the summer.

Update: 7/18. Apparently from talking with some people the two most recent WOWs had about 20 people each which is significantly lower turnout than previous years. We will have to see how ours will be this week but the weather looks iffy. Hot and probable rain. Could be cancelled.

The Bijou Cafe

The Bijou Cafe was one of my favorite small music venues in Philadelphia during the 1970's. It was located on Lombard Street downtown. This space has had a long storied tradition in the history of music and theater in Philly but had only opened as the Bijou Cafe in 1972. At the time it had most recently been The Showboat and had featured jazz and theater for decades. It was a small venue and had a capacity of about 300 people squeezed into the bar area and the tables in front of the stage. I had been there a couple of times during the Showboat years in my mid-1960's teenage years once for a jazz show and another time for a musical theater show. I'm going to need to jog my memory about those shows. A recent discussion on a Facebook group about the sights and sounds of the 1970's got me thinking about the Bijou Cafe.

My first time there at the Bijou Cafe was in 1973 with John Howley to see Billy Joel. At the time I had no idea who he was. He had become very popular in Philly when Sigma Sound Studio and WMMR broadcasted a live show of the songs he recorded there in 1972. One of the songs, Captain Jack, continued to be played on the station and quickly became "the most requested song in the station's history". The record companies took notice and he was quickly singed to Columbia Records and released Piano Man in November 1973. In the meantime he had a hit song in Philly that summer of 73 and I got to see this guy sing and play his piano. It was a wonderful show.

I was home on leave again a few months later and John took me down to the Bijou again to see another singer songwriter that I hadn't heard. This time it was Tom Waits. We sat at a table very close to the stage that night. In fact it was so close that we could actually smell the BO coming from Waits as he was very much into his weird unwashed stage persona. I soon became a big fan to Tom Waits despite the BO of that night.

Over the next few years until we moved in 1979 Becky and I saw a few shows down at this club.

Joe Friday

I was watching some of the trump coup hearings on CNN and during one of the breaks a group of people were doing some talking and analysis of the events. One of the talking heads referred to one of the person's testifying publicly before the committee under oath as needing to have a "Joe Friday" moment on the stand. Then she immediately turned to the younger folks on the panel then said she would explain the comment to them later. I knew exactly what she was talking about and immediately got the reference.

Of course Joe Friday was the fictional detective character on the show Dragnet played by the actor Jack Webb. In the show Detective Friday was known for uttering the phrase in every episode "just the facts ma'am". 

Dragnet was originally a radio show that moved to television in 1951. It then ran until 1959 as a black and white series. I remember some of the later seasons of that first run. I was a little kid but someone in the house liked the show. Probably Nana and Grandpop. The show came back in color in 1967 and ran until 1970. I remember it was a big thing when it came back on the air after almost a decade and that first episode was an event. It was crazy too and about young people on LSD. I remember that particular show well. Friday's partner in the new show was played by Harry Morgan and was very popular. I watched the first couple of seasons of the new show but I was out most of the time during the later years although I did see a lot of the shows in reruns years later.

The famous phrase is actually a misquote. The closes he ever got to saying the phrase was "all we want are the facts, ma'am". The famous phrase came from a comedian doing a play on Dragnet. 

Roe v Wade Overturned

Today the Right Wing Fascists of the USA officially declared war on women in America. There can be no doubt whatsoever about the intentions of conservatives to maintain control of women at any cost. This certainly has nothing to do with protecting babies in an America that conservatives insist on denying universal healthcare including maternal care. They insist on denying paid parental leave, childcare support, universal pre-school and the list goes on and on. No, this is about control over women and the insistence of everyone in our nation adhering to the distorted religious values of a small fanatical minority that have been working for decades to take control of America through gerrymandering legislatures and voter suppression.

Recently the crazies have resorted to an attempted coup to take over the government of our nation. 

Another thing to consider. 7 of the 9 justices of the supreme court were appointed by a political party that hasn't won a national election popular vote in 30 years. One of those seats was stolen and several lied to congress to secure their appointment. This is an illegitimate supreme court. Their argument to overturn Roe v Wade was the exact opposite they used to justify their ruling on striking down the ability of states to write laws limiting the carrying of concealed guns which is grossly hypocritical. 

Porch Steps Painting Music

This evening I put some primer paint on our front porch steps. I waited until later in the day because it was a little too hot in the sun to comfortably work and why not. I had my portable speaker out there with me playing music from a flash drive. I had loaded a bunch of mixes and I had just been letting it play. These mixes were single file mixes that I had once uploaded to MixCloud. 

I started out with an old covers mix titled There She Goes Again and was part of my old Happy Hour series. The file name was happyhour7. When that file finished the next up was ladiesnight3 and a mix titled Dissolved Girl. I was playing the music fairly loud but not overly so or so I thought.

A neighbor from across the street appeared in my driveway to ask me about the music. I immediately apologized for playing the music too loud but she was adamant that it wasn't a problem. She said she was sitting on the porch reading and could faintly hear the music and loved every song. She exclaimed that it was the best series of songs put together that she had ever heard outside of something she would put on herself. She said she knew and loved every song and it was music she listened to when she was a young person. She came over to compliment me on the music and tell me how much she was enjoying it. We then talked about music, my dj days and the local music scene. She brought up going to the Continental. The Ladies Night mix was mostly songs from the 90's. She then went back across the street and I went back to my painting.

A few minutes later I heard a big fuss from some teenage girls coming down the street. They were yelling and making lots of noise but I couldn't see them because of the hedge. When they came directly in front of the house I saw that it was three teenage girls dancing to my music. They saw me and smiled and one of them said "thank you for the songs" as I stood there with my paintbrush in hand. I smiled back. I then realized the song they were dancing too was Alanis Morissette's You Oughta Know. That cracked me up. 

Becky had heard the fuss from the girls and came out on the porch as they passed by. We had a good laugh. 

• Dissolved Girl - Ladies Night
• There She Goes Again - Happy Hour

The Purple Stains

The Purple Stains are what I call the flowers that drop every spring from our neighbor's catalpa tree. The take about a month to completely come down and of course most of them land on our back porch, the paved area of our backyard and the walkway next to our house.

When we first moved into our house we did not realize the extent of this flower problem. At first the flowers in the tree are white and very beautiful but then they start to fall to the ground. Almost immediately they turn a dried up purple color and they are everywhere where we walk. The problem is they stick to our shoes and then are tracked into the house where they stain everything they touch with a purple smear. That first Spring in the house the kids tracked in an awful lot of the dead flowers on their shoes and we had purple stains all over our rugs. 

I became obsessed with sweeping up the flowers at that time and now some twenty five years later I'm still out there several times a day sweeping those purple stains. Fortunately I sweep them off to the side into flower beds and don't have to pick them up and put them in the trash. I just let nature take care of them once I get them out of the places where we walk. The photo of the walkway was taken a couple of hours after I had already swept that area. If I didn't sweep for a day or so you probably would not be able to see the concrete. 

During the years when I was working I would come out in the evening and sweep up the dried up flowers but for the past few years that I've been retired I go out there several times a day and sweep. It gives me a little exercise. It's amazing how many flowers can drop on our porch and walkway in a day. 

Of course there are also the constant dropping of the long and hard cigar like seed pods that are also a big messy pain in the ass. They seem to come down almost all year long. So today and every day this week and probably next week as I did last week I will sweep a couple of times a day.

I wanted to paint the back porch this week but because of the purple stain flowers I will need to wait until at least next week because I don't want those things coming down on my wet paint.

BTW, The Purple Stains sounds like a good name for a rock band back in the day.

Lady Ruby

I watched about three hours of the Jan 6th Insurrection Hearings today and they were emotionally devastating to me. Three of the people giving testimony today were Republican state election officials that were pressured by Trump and his team to essentially make his coup possible. They were heroes who put the nation ahead of their party and the lying obsession of one man enabled by his stooges. However, the most powerful testimony came from two black election workers that actually brought tears to my eyes. 

The two women were mother and daughter. The daughter worked as an election worker and her mother was a small business owner who was volunteering for the election. The mother went by the name Lady Ruby at her business. The daughter was Shaye Moss. Both were falsely accused of wrongdoing by then President Trump himself and he continued to make those false accusations long after his lies were proven false by Republican government officials. His relentless lies about them and his constant using social media in provoking his followers to harass these women and their families. The daughter described how she loved to help the older people in her Atlanta neighborhood to vote and how her grandmother and her generation of older black people did not have the right to vote in the South. Trump and his cronies were going after black voters and their blatant racism in their attacks on these women was painfully obvious. Perhaps the worse thing I heard today was the testimony that the grandmother's home was attacked by trump supporter trying to make a citizen's arrest of the mother and daughter for treason.

Another bit of shocking testimony was not only the online and phone harassment of local government officials and election workers was the trump supporters marching on people's homes and workplaces and acting like nazi brownshirts. 

I can't understand why trump is not watching these hearings from his prison cell.

Father's Day Weekend 2022

We had a wonderful Father's Day Weekend with Sean, Ashley and Andrew coming into town for a visit. They came in on Friday and stayed until Monday morning. It was great seeing my son and grandson on Father's Day.

We had Dave, Donna and Mary over for dinner on Sunday. 

On Sunday morning I started feeling lousy. I was getting sick again and needed to lay down for a nap before our guests came over for dinner. We all had a nice time although I was out of sorts and still not feeling well. Sick again but that's another story.

Frank Zappa and Mahavishnu Orchestra at the Spectrum

One of my favorite concerts of the 1970's was seeing John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra opening up for Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention at The Spectrum in Philadelphia in April of 1973. This was another show I saw with John while I was home on a weekend leave that year. It was a great show and the two bands were co-billed although Zappa closed the night. I had been a fan of John McLaughlin since about 1969 in his earlier bands and of course Frank Zappa since late 1966 when I got Freak Out when it was released.

This was the only time I saw the Mahavishnu Orchestra but I did see John McLaughlin with his band Shakti in November 1977 with Becky. I did see Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention two times earlier. At the Electric Factory rock club in downtown Philly in 1968 and the at the Atlantic City Pop Festival in 1969. 

I almost forgot we saw John Hammond at this show. I saw him several times perform over the years at The Main Point and Philly Folk Festival.

Mudbound

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan, 2008 

Read this in ten days in May. It was a brutal historical novel about the Jim Crow south in 1946. I had been reading several books lately about the black experience in the south and this powerful novel was another eye opening thought provoker about the struggling lives of sharecroppers and the their racists environment. It was a well written moving and tragic novel about life on a cotton farm in the Mississippi Delta following World War II.  The novel also provided a glimpse of life for two families, one white and one black, in the Jim Crow 30's and 40's too.   

It was amazing that this was a debut novel for this author. I found about this novel because it was made into a film in 2017 and recently saw that it was streaming online. I thought to read it first before seeing the movie. She has written a couple of other novels that I will be reading in the near future.

Glass of Beer - Nu Haze

Becky recently came home from the grocery store with a variety pack of beer from Southern Tier Brewing which is always a good thing. There was a beer in the pack that I'd never had from them before... Nu Haze. It's a New England style hazy IPA. It was very good and perfect for sitting outside on a warm summer evening.

Jan 6th Public Hearings

Last night I watched the first televised public session of the January 6th Committee hearings. I sat in the kitchen at the table and I had the live televised feed from CNN in one of the windows of my laptop. Becky was in the living room watching one of her shows on the TV. We really didn't need to watch the hearings but I was interested in the presentation.

I thought Liz Cheney was great. Now I don't ever agree with anything she has ever stood for previously but she has a very strong knack for knocking down trump and all of the republican traitors that have been supporting him and his lies.

The video presentation was highly entertaining and strikingly scary at the same time. It was damning and certainly went to the heart of the insurrection. I can see why Fox News did not want to show it. The hearings testimonies and videos were all very powerful.

The ratings for the first night of the public hearings were 20 million viewers. Fox News ran their regular programing and had their regular audience of 3 million. Nobody expected the Fox viewers to tune in and get their minds changed. That just isn't in their nature. They are there at Fox to get their biases reinforced. 

I turned on Fox today for a little bit and of course they were ranting about how biased all of the mainstream media was against them and trump. 

Urology

I had my annual doctor's visit with the urologist today. I had my blood work for prostate disease done last week and the results were outstanding. The doctor was very happy with the results. All of my blood work was good and the urine tests showed no problems. The prostate exam also indicated that everything was good with me. I was told I had no urology issues and they would see me again next year. 

They said I was doing very well for a 70 year old guy. The WNY Urology Center is always very crowded with patients and most of the people there are getting treatment for some very serious issues. It makes me feel very fortunate not to have any problems in those areas. Overall I am doing well for that 70 year old guy. Next month I have my annual visit with my cardiologist and once again I have no issues. And again I feel very fortunate. 

Feeling Better... Finally

This has probably been the longest lasting cold I've had in my adult life. Now, I've had many spring colds over the years but nothing like what I've gone through this spring of 2022. First I had about a three week cold in April following our visit to Philly and Glenville. Them a month later in mid-May I got sick again followed by Becky getting sick.

Finally now during the first week of June I've been feeling much better but still not completely well. I wrote about these spring illnesses in some earlier posts. First with Spring Cold in April, Sick Again a month later and the Sick Again Pt. 2 about a week ago. I've never really experienced this kind of ongoing being sick with a cold. It has been very frustrating. 

I really think a lot of this problem has been that our immune systems have been somewhat compromised by our not being our and about as much as usual because of covid and our not being exposed normally to the different cold viruses. Then we do something or visit with people and bingo we get a nasty cold that in other years would bother us for a few days instead of a few weeks. In previous years how many times were we in crowded bars and restaurants but during the past couple of years not so much. Actually not at all. The very few times we were in a restaurant dining room it was not crowded and also in between new virus strain exposures. 

Fortunately these colds have not been the coronavirus. We have had home testing done and we have also recently went out and had the PCR testing done. Always negative.

I really wish things would get back to normal.  We are going to Long Lake with the family in July and when we get back we will be hosting a Parkside Wine on Wednesday. I'm planning to stop by a WOW next week.

I had a dentist appointment scheduled for last week to get my teeth cleaned and had to cancel it because I wasn't sure if I would still be coughing. I didn't want to infect anyone. I was lucky that I was able to reschedule the appointment for two weeks later because someone had just cancelled. I will be able to go next week and get my teeth cleaned and checked.

I'm looking forward to being and staying healthy again.

Signing & Electronic Devices

Over the past several years we are seeing a lot more commercial transactions that require your signature directly into an electronic device without the use of any paper. We're also starting to see businesses that do not accept cash. I recently when our for a couple of beers with some friends in that new brewery in the park and the first thing I noticed was the no cash sign. All transactions were done with a little electronic device attached to the counter that displayed the cost of the purchase and an option for a tip. One had to sign in the device with your finger which makes for an awkward signature.

I first saw this universal new way of doing things when we were traveling in Europe in 2018 and 2019. In most places including restaurants we were handed a little portable electronic device to process our credit cards for services including tips. We hardly needed cash anyway which was great. At the time I wondered when this would all happen at home and it didn't take very long to catch up.

I hardly ever carry much cash anymore and I can't remember the last time I paid for anything using cash. I especially like the quick and easy card transaction when getting gas. Just touch the card to the panel to make the transaction. Very easy. It's getting to be like that everywhere including stores and getting a haircut. 

I don't really need to sign many things electronically now that I'm retired but people in the workplace sign electronically all the time. There are lots of program add-ons that enable that to happen quickly with a saved electronic signature that is used for all of one's electronic documents. One can create an electronic signature and have it readily available to use over and over again for all online or electronic documents. People are signing paper documents less and less anymore.

The thing I dislike most about signing something on one of these devices is when you need to do it with a finger. My signature with a finer never looks like my real signature done with a pen. It just doesn't.

Tom @ 8 Years

Of course Facebook reminded me today that my brother Tom passed away eight years ago today. I was thinking about him just yesterday because I saw a picture of my grandson Andrew pushing a toy lawnmower and something about his look, the turn of the head, the posture, that reminded me immediately of Tom. He really looked like him in the photo and it was enough that I sent a copy of it out on our sibling chat. I think everyone agreed. Cathy asked if I looked for a white spot in Andrew's hair like Tom had as a little kid.

That day eight years ago still remains vivid in my mind. I had just talked with him on the phone a few days before and we made plans to have dinner together at a restaurant downtown. I had made reservations for the day after we were to arrive in town. Becky and I spent this day driving down to Philly and arrived at Betsy's house in the late afternoon. Our dinner with Tom would be the next day but when we got out of the car Betsy had the sad and surprising news that Tom had passed away that morning. Dan had found him dead in his bed.

So instead of going out to dinner with him we had an Irish Wake and then a funeral home viewing a few days later. He certainly had a lot of people that came by for the viewing at the Chestnut Hill funeral home down the street from his bar. 

We would have another memorial service for him several months later.