Year of the Startup

Our Mystic/Boston trip started, strangely enough, at my dad’s church in Wellsville, NY.

By the way, Jeffrey and I played bass & guitar during the service, and our “newer” music was well-received.  After service, we left for Mystic, Connecticut.

The drive was long and frustrating.

On this coast, you have two groups of drivers: Those who totally disregard the speed limit, and those who never get near it.  I could be traveling at a nice high speed, and then with no warning, the speed would drop 20-30MPH because some slow-poke got into the fast lane and wouldn’t scoot over (pretty much all our driving today was two-lane).  There were also frequent changes between 65MPH and 55MPH on the highway, yet I soon learned that no one slows down for the 55MPH zones.  Good thing too because our Garmin was convinced that it was 65MPH the whole way there.  Had we not gone with the crowd, it would have been a much slower trip.

We only stopped twice: McDonalds and Dunkin Doughnuts; not exactly the most healthy of choices, but it was good.  I had coffee at both locals because we had to get up really early for church.

For the majority of the trip, we listened to albums on my iPod – many of which my kids had never heard.  Towards the end, we switched to comedy.  My kids were introduced to the Smothers Brothers last year, and now we have their greatest hits on CD.  They are trying to memorize portions of this CD.  We then listened to selections from Bill Engvall, the “Here’s your sign” guy.  Funny, funny stuff!

Eventually, we got to the Howard Johnson and settled into our nice, cool hotel room.

Later that night, we exited the building – with the other side of each door getting hotter and more humid – and drove to Mystic Pizza (you know, from the 1988 movie).  Hey, lucky us, we found a parking place right near the restaurant.  The pizza was very good, and we left with boxes.  We had to stop at the CVS on the way home because both our kids have long, luxurious hair and they keep running out of conditioner.  Somehow some circus peanuts also wound up in the bag – a favorite of mine.  My family had never had circus peanuts before, and I think they found a new favorite candy.

The pillows in our hotel were lumpy, and the mattresses “caved” in the middle.  I spent the evening trying to make my pillow comfortable while climbing up to the side of the mattress, away from Barbara who had settled down below in the middle of the bed.  Courtney decided to put the A/C on low without telling us when she went to bed.  By 1:30AM, the place was hot, so I had to crawl over luggage to get to the controls.  The evening went slightly better after that.

Today was another trip to grandma’s house.  First though, we said good-bye to Thomas and Kristen.  Kristen was driven by my parents to ROC early this morning, and Thomas was headed back home in his car.  My family left between those two departures to go to Harriet Tubman’s home in Auburn before meeting up with my parents and grandma in another part of Auburn.

As we drove to Auburn, we went through Waterloo, birthplace of Memorial Day, then through Seneca Falls,  where women’s suffrage movement began in 1848 (with Stanton, Mott & Wright; Susan B. Anthony came a bit later… from Rochester).  Mott was also big in the anti-slavery movement and convinced Harriet Tubman to move to Auburn at the start of the Civil War… and we were headed to her house now!

The movie/tour was very informational about Tubman and the Underground Railroad.  I did not realize that the Underground Railroad was this far north, but its various start points were along the Southern Pennsylvania border (the Mason-Dixon Line) and continued west along the Ohio and Missouri rivers.  The “promise land” was not “The North” as I had assumed, but Canada, and so the trail was not from the South to freedom in the North, but began when one got into Pennsylvania/Ohio/Indiana, Illinois and ended when one got to Canada.  Tubman was making her trips back and forth between Philadelphia to the other side of Niagara Falls for the most part.  She also didn’t escape from the Deep South, but from a plantation in Maryland.  The reason she had to sneak through Pennsylvania and New York was because there were huge bounties for anyone helping slaves escape to Canada, and the folks in Pennsylvania and New York would gladly take the reward.  At the start of the Civil War, Tubman moved to Auburn… and then she worked for the Union as a scout, but didn’t get paid.  It wasn’t until word got out after the war that she was broke that folks took up a collection.  Eventually, she did get a pension.  She lived to 93; quite old for those days.

Speaking of 93, we then went to have lunch with my grandma, who is 93, and then we took her back to her house, where the kids and I explored her basement and garage.  The garage/cellar once held all these “wonders” (junk that my grandpa collected, and wonderful wood projects that he had made), but my uncle Stu was quite thorough in getting rid of everything.  The bottom floor was now mostly bare; only the smell of must and oil remained (my grandfather was a mechanic, and his detached A-frame garage used to be a gas station – the tanks are still underground!).  Still, there were a few “trinkets” left to keep our attention for a while: an old manual drill press, a metal lathe, some of his dioramas, and license plates my family had sent him over the years from all over the world.

The drive home was fun.  My kids continued to control the stereo because we had plugged my iPod into it and they had the iPod in the back.  Most of the music was unfamiliar to them, but occasionally, they found a song they knew from Rock Band.

It is simply impossible to show in pictures how beautiful the countryside is.  I tried to take pictures of it, but failed to show its majesty.

One year ago today, a bunch of us got on a plane for a whirlwind tour of Germany.  It seems like it was so long ago!  I’m now seriously thinking about the next tour in 2013, which will likely be a “Footsteps of Paul” tour/cruise of Greece and Turkey.  I’d sure love to throw in Egypt and Israel as well.  The thing is, I don’t know if I’ll have any income at all in two years, and I’d hate to organize this thing only to discover that I can’t go due to lack of funds.

Oh ya, lake stuff.  Matt and I hit the wine trail today.  We started at Dr. Frank’s, and then headed north to Hunt Country, then finally Yates Cellars.  All were excellent wineries, and we bought at all three places.  Matt took a case home today.  I’m having a case shipped back to California.

Each of us drank from 20 different bottles.  By the end, my speech was slurring, but I could still feel my teeth (my indicators of 0.05% and 0.08% respectively – I was still OK to drive).

When we got back, our whole group of nine went to Geneva (NY, not Switzerland) for some special pizza place (Uncle Joe’s).  It was excellent, though I’m not sure it was worth driving a half an hour to get to.  The pizza sauce had a heavy application of Chianti wine in it, which I liked very much.

Upon our arrival back at the old homestead, it was time for Matt to leave.  But before Matt left, dad got us all to move a boat trailer so she could get “buttercup” (Kevin’s boat) out of the water.  After that, Matt left.  Then we were eight.

The girls floated on the lake, the rest played cards.  I did some call committee work for the church back home.

It was a good day.

Today was boring to most.  Early in the morning, Matt and I began to read our science fiction books.  Later, dad joined us, and then Kristen.  All of us are avid readers.  The rest, not so much, so they got bored (OK, my wife is an avid reader as well, but her primary focus is always on the kids – she won’t allow the kids to “suffer” while she reads).  My wife took the kids out on a kayak ride; a long loop across the lake and back.  Thomas went up to the loft and was never seen again; burying himself in technology of various forms.  In the evening, Barb and all the kids went to Keuka Carts and raced little go-carts around for a while.  Since the go-carts are near Seneca Farms, they just had to stop for ice cream.

I wound up finishing my book, Hyperion, today – reading half the book in one sitting.  And since I had spent almost two years reading the first half off and on (mostly off, obviously), I decided to start from the beginning again and read to where I started reading in earnest; the day I got on the plane to come here.  This book deserves a more thorough reading, and I believe, in the end, it will become an all-time top 10 book for me (so why did it take so long for me to read it?  The book is fantastic!).

Well, the weekend went fine.  Saturday was all about setting up for the church event.  Sunday was pretty much an all day affair, and though exhausting, it was fun.  I think all of us went to bed early.

This morning, Matt was up early so he made pancakes.  This gave us the energy to tear everything down from the Sunday event.  In the afternoon, my family and assorted cousins/nephews walked the entire town of Penn Yan in 25 minutes, and then went to see Cowboys vs. Aliens.  Dinner was manicotti.  After dinner, we played Frisbee for a while, and then all of us jumped in the lake.  I can’t tell you how relaxing it was to just float on your back, arms stretched out, looking up at the clouds, seeing an occasional bird (and hoping it doesn’t poop in your eye), with the muffled sound of happy children nearby.  What a great way to end a day!

Somehow (?) I had some sort of an attack just before midnight.  I couldn’t breathe for a while.  I wasn’t sure if this was asthma, allergy, sleep apnea or getting some snot down my windpipe.  Breathing was very slow and labored.  Eventually, I was able to breathe, but it sort of ruined my sleep cycle.   I got up shortly after 6AM.  I smelled coffee.  Now, usually I’m the first one up by an hour or so (then my daughter Courtney, then my parents).  My brother and sister-in-law, were not only up, but were on their way out to go kayaking.  The lake was glassy-smooth, so it was definitely a great idea.  When they got back from kayaking, they took their bikes up to the bluff and biked around.  Meanwhile, my wife and I got all the kids ready to go to “The Windmill,” a local Mennonite craft place.  We shopped for a few hours.  When we got back, we set up the outside for tomorrow’s “Church Service at the Lake,” and then the kids went swimming while I practiced guitar for tomorrow’s event then made hamburger patties, also for tomorrow’s event, and skewered meat and vegetables for tonight’s meal.  My nephew Matt arrived late in the evening.

I got up pretty early today so I could start to boil-down 30 cups of blueberries for a whole bunch of pies.  After I got that going, my sister and I started chopping up meat and vegetables for tomorrow’s shish-kabobs.  I finished the chopping and the pies by noon.  I was wiped-out!

Around 3PM, my family came back from their time in Pennsylvania with my wife’s side of the family.  They all had stories to tell.  Around 4PM, my brother and family arrived… except for his son, who would show up late tonight.  We all had a nice birthday dinner, which was provided by my wife (pizza).  We’ll have the “official” birthday dinner tomorrow with shish-kabobs, fresh corn, blueberry pie and angel food cake.

Today we visited my grandma who lives a couple of lakes over.  The day was overcast, but the views were lovely – so pastoral.  Grandma was doing fine.  We took her out to lunch then my mom shopped for her while I shopped for the next few day’s worth of meals.  Starting tomorrow, we’ll have ever-increasing numbers of folks on the lake.  After we left Grandma, we ordered Chinese takeout and picked it up once we got to Penn Yan.  Dinner was alright, except I’m a food snob (living in the Bay Area as I do, there is no shortage of top-notch Chinese food… which this was not).  I liken Chinese food in Upstate New York to getting Salsa from NYC, or Mexican Food from Fargo, North Dakota.  It’s just not going to be great.

Eight solid hours of work done today!  Bringing the computer into my room really helped, but now my back hurts.  This chair and sewing cabinet was never designed for long-term computer use (heck, when this sewing cabinet was made, there were no computers).

In the evening, we went to “The Keuka,” a very nice hole in the wall kind of restaurant in Penn Yan.  The food was spectacular!  I had the Tilapia with an artichoke/caper/garlic sauce.

I walked two miles this morning with my dad.  Hopefully, today starts a new discipline.  I really need to get back into shape!

Sometime around 11, Mindy and I went out to pick more blueberries.  Even while talking on my cell phone, I still managed to pick eight pounds in 45 minutes with one hand.  Mindy and I left with 14 lbs. total to add to the 19 lbs. we had picked over the weekend.  I’m thinking that we might have to do something with these blueberries soon; pies, smoothies or maybe we can turn them into a liqueur.

I attempted to work, but since my computer is up in the loft, and so was my sister and her daughter, things weren’t as effective as I had hoped.  Eventually, I moved my operation (computer, monitor, keyboard, etc) downstairs to my bedroom.  I did this in part so I could still get some work done today, but also because my sister has decided to stay until next Tuesday… and she sleeps in the loft (she was going to leave today).  I’m an early riser, she’s a late sleeper.  I can work longer if I can get to my computer before 10AM — It’s logical.  Really, I should have moved it sooner, but I thought that the loft would be mine sometime today.

Yeah, I finally got into town.  Penn Yan looks about the same, though a few stores have either closed or changed ownership.  It was nice to see the bait shop, the go carts, Keuka Winery, Hunt Country Vineyards and Seneca Farms Ice Cream again.  I was pleased to see that there is a Red Box in town.  My sister and I rented a couple of movies for tonight.  My son noted not long ago that the nearest Starbucks is 72 miles away, if that’s an indicator of how progressive this area is:  Good enough for Red Box; not quite up to getting a Starbucks yet.