Memorial Day weekend came with infinitely better weather than suggested by the forecasters or the preceding two weeks of rain.
We spent time with Andrea, John, Nyla & Noah and others including the Browns. Struggled to fit in three barbecues. Missed John Sr. and Jeannette.
The Orton siblings gathered in Berkeley Heights NJ for a reunion this weekend. The last time all four were together was in 1997 at Nantasket Beach.
Today’s outing featured a trip to watch Noah Gilstrap play lacrosse in Princeton NJ. Mom and Dad were there also as was sister Nyla.
Torrey Orton fulfilled an objective of the trip with a visit to the hot dog stand. Nostalgia takes strange forms.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Noah Number 8
post game picnic
I have used computers regularly at work and home since the early 80′s. I built my first website in 1999. My earliest computing goes back to punch card days. I use Skype videoconferencing regularly with clients. We share documents back and forth. Karen and I maintain more than six websites for business and personal uses. I build new websites for businesses here in Hudson. All of this is just to indicate that computers are not a novel notion for me.
The other day Karen and I heard the telltale signal that Skype was calling us with some incoming call. Given the time of day, we knew that it was Hong Kong calling. Instead of answering it on my desktop machine I popped open our two week old iPad and answered. There were Jonathan, Nan, Jesse, and Anna in Hong Kong. We were sitting in our breakfast nook and they on the floor in their living room.
The usual family blather was conducted. Jesse showed us his stuffed animal cat and fed it carrots. Anna demonstrated her walking. Then I noticed Jesse wandering off to do something and I was struck by the notion that this videoconference was just part of the furniture of his life. He talks regularly with at ,east two sets of grandparents and probably others. I was sitting there struck at the same moment by the novelty of this event occurring not on a large desktop computer with all of it’s wires, external hard drives and printers cluttering a desk, but on a panel 9.5 x 7.5 inches and a mere .38 inches thick sitting without any dangling attachments.
In fact, as I am writing this, I realize that I have been planning ahead for this to happen. Recently I bought another WiFi router and set it up towards the back of the house. Initially I was just thinking of improving the signal in the breakfast nook. Then we had a day of warm weather and I sat on our deck in the back yard and played on the iPad. Soon we will video conference with the grandchildren from there too.
Still, I am struck by how miraculous this all is.
We got up early and drove down to Brewster to watch Nyla play in a lacrosse game. I admit to be somewhat befuddled about the rules. Unlike the boys game which features lots of “checking” of opponents (really whacking, flailing, pummeling, and hacking are better terms), the girls game does not allow this. So, the strategy seems quite different. I will have to find the rules for girls lacrosse and examine them further.
At any rate it was great fun seeing Nyla play, even if I experienced some trepidation that hyper-competitive mother Andrea might rush on the field to lead the charge.
We went off to our traditional Thanksgiving with Ed, Meredith, Maggie and Parker in Berkeley Heights, NJ. Part of the required activities include appearing at the football game between Governor Livingston High School (Meredith’s place of employment if not enlightenment) and New Providence High School. This year the affair was on hostile territory in New Providence, the next town over. On the way we had a few troubles getting organized for a group photo.
Ultimately we got to the game, mostly for free due to Meredith’s teacher’s badge and old fart status for some who don’t want to be identified as such except in ticket lines.
It sort of looked like football. But the fact of the matter is revealed by the score at halftime. The game closed out at 35 – 13. GL High School had a dreadful 0 – 9 season. Maybe this is another high school coach headed for the peewee league.
And, we were deterred further from lolly gagging around by the cold wind and snow flurries. Anyway, we had heard enough of the disgusting fawning and groveling by students (Meredith insists that there was no groveling) at the site of “Oh, Dr. Morgan!!”.
Time to go home.
Turkey day was capped off by a quite traditional fare wonderfully commanded by Meredith. This year, because there were no additional guests we ate “buffet style” in the kitchen, thus avoiding the arduous task of clear the rubble from the dining room table.The only innovation to the fare was Ed’s roasted Brussels sprouts and radishes. Of course, Mr. Wonderful recreated his all-American dish of sweet potatoes covered with marshmallows – a particular favorite of Parker.
You’re probably are wondering about the feline story. Well, after we stuffed ourselves we had the entertainment of watching Tigerr, one of the resident cats eye the turkey leftovers and then make a leap for it.
