Three Seasons of Catching Up

It's been over six months since I posted anything here so on a rainy, cold day in December I've stolen lots of pictures from friends' and family facebook pages and snapfish albums to fill in some of what I've been up to.  The rechargeable batteries I used in my camera finally gave up after many years of use so I haven't taken any pictures in months.  New batteries have finally been purchased, the old ones still last a month or two powering the transistor radio on a charge.
The most significant development is the progression of my sister Mary Ellen's brain tumor.  She was dealing with it pretty well for a year without suffering much pain, but she had some seizures in August of 2013 that left her with little use of her left side.  It's been an honor and a pleasure to be so close to her ever since I moved to this area, in fact I credit her living here and introducing me to Ithaca as a primary reason why I ended up here.  The cancer has meant spending even more time with her and helping with her care.  This past September she came down with a case of shingles which left her in a condition where she could no longer remain at home and has moved into Hospicare.  It is a six-person residence offering hospice services to people who need a higher level of care than they can get at home, without the constrictions and regulations of a nursing home.  
Fittingly, in August Gail participated in their largest fundraiser and one of Ithaca's most cherished events, Women Swimmin' For Hospicare.  She helped raise about $400,000 towards their operating budget by getting sponsors for swimming across Cayuga Lake.  She's not pictured here, but you can imagine she looked just like this on that beautiful August morning.  The swimmers are actually Nancy and Amy and their boating companion, Beth, took the picture.

A silver lining is that many of my siblings and cousins have been coming to Ithaca on a regular basis to visit Mary Ellen.  Sue in particular has been here for months at a time, as was my nephew, Matt.  I now get to see my mom almost weekly when she comes with Janet from Buffalo.

I've since taken a sort of leave from work, I go for the morning and if no other family members are in town I go up to Hospicare in the afternoon and keep Mary Ellen company and do what can be done to make her comfortable until my brother-in-law, Frank, comes back up in the evening.  As you can tell from the top photo this has led to a mutual adoration.  The picture below it is from GrassRoots Festival in July, she says she looks frightening in the picture, but no one looks their best after a day at GR, especially when they have a medical condition that forces them to drink so many fluids that they have to use a port-a-john just about every hour.
As for Frank, he's proven Mary Ellen's skepticism expressed in the look in this photo from our niece's wedding a few years ago was unwarranted:

Three Seasons of Catching Up

Gail and I didn't do a big bike trip this summer, but we got around quite a bit both together and separately.  Here we are standing on the shore of Brandt Lake in the Adirondacks celebrating the wedding of friends we often visit at Lake George. 

Three Seasons of Catching Up

Late in the school year I got to be a part of a cool project thanks to helping in a class taught by good friend, Becca Gergely.  She's pictured with her son who was in first grade last year at Fall Creek School.  The photo at the top is Josie reading with her buddy, she's gone on to design school now.  The class we worked together in was Reader's Workshop which had as an objective to get kids to read more or try some new stuff if they are already readers.  Becca had this great idea to pair up the high school seniors with two of the first grade classes to be reading buddies.  We took the seniors to Fall Creek a couple times and the first graders came over to the Big House once.  It was a huge success and brought out the best in both age groups.  We made sure there was time for playing on the playground and eating ice cream too.

Three Seasons of Catching Up

One of the duties I've always avoided at work is chaperoning dances.  But when I got an urgent call from my fabulous friend, Sarah, to fill in for a last-minute cancellation I gave in.  I've really enjoyed working with many members of the Class of 2014 so it wasn't too much of a hardship.  Plus Gail was away so I would have just sat around the house all night instead of seeing all these kids dressed up and dancing to the Gunpoets at the Farmer's Market. 
Missing Tori, the guy pictured in the top photo, that's Sarah, not a student, in the second one, the third is cropped to protect the "innocent" and kids gather on the dock before taking a lake cruise.

Three Seasons of Catching Up

I rode my bike to the Great Blue Heron Festival again, it was hot the first day but I made it to Hornell, NY.  That gave me short day to get to Mt. Irenaeus to spend a couple days felling trees with Brother Joe in a forest improvement effort.
The festival was standard fare, wonderful times with good friends and lots of great music, some of which I even played.  Red Dog Run had a blast playing their set,  Julie and Andrea are siblings loving the festival they get to put on at Julie's place every summer.  Lori and Pat Burke stay dry during a shower, looks like they must be talking about Dan's motor home.  Lori, Dan and another friend, Fred Parker, all made it to Ithaca/Trumansburg for GrassRoots a couple weeks later.  Steve, Julie (hosts) pose with Jenn who runs the program that keeps tons of recyclable products from going to the landfill. 
Sadly, it was the last time I saw good friend and coworker in HQ, Tracy Burt.  She was able to make it to the festival but succumbed to a brain tumor a little over a month later.  She and Tammy Rayborne have been holding HQ together for about ten years, I sit around and play banjo to keep everyone calm.  Tracy is on the left.  We miss her.

Three Seasons of Catching Up

I went back to Westfield for my first overnight there in a couple years to attend my 30th high school reunion.  GrassRoots festival set-up prevented me from attending dinner Friday night, but I made the most of my time there and got to the picnic Saturday, dinner downtown with Howard that evening, the dance at Eason Hall later that night, Larry's Cantina post-dance, and even to the Firemen's Ox Roast the next day.  It was great to reconnect with some old friends and see who else hasn't been plagued by the aging process, Heidi Trippy and Daphne McManus certainly qualify.  I hesitate to say Howard is included because after having dinner downtown and running into the McCloskey Girls he went home for a "nap" before the dance.  He wasn't seen until Sunday afternoon.
A couple weeks ago an annual reunion of sorts happened when many Westfield friends got together in the Catskills.  We've been doing this at different locations every fall for almost 25 years. 

Three Seasons of Catching Up

My family also continued a long-time tradition of getting together for a week.  Mary Ellen started this and has generously provided the accommodations for over 20 years.  It is a wonderful chance for the cousins to spend time together, usually two generations of them.  And Mary Ellen got to swim.

Three Seasons of Catching Up

Gail and I got to spend a good deal of time on two of our favorite lakes, Cayuga and Piseco. 

After a brief visit to Ithaca we took our niece, Mariana, with us to Piseco to visit the Arend camp and meet our new nephew, Dusty.  Like a good uncle I held him while he napped, and also gave older brother Harper a banjo lesson.  Harper also made his first trip up Panther Mountain, about 30 years after his mom's first.  We hiked in some old growth, the last stand I knew about from and article that I cut out more than 15 years ago, the tree pictured is from a hike Gail and I took to T Lake.

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Some friends rented a cottage on Cayuga Lake and we went up a few times.  During one visit Steve Nicholson did the unimaginable; he stepped on two different yellow jacket nests within 50 feet of each other in under five minutes.  He got stung once, I came away unscathed. Andy tried to pay for the rental by collecting scrap metal up and down the railroad tracks and then shipping it back to the cottage via canoe.
Andy was also in on the special project at GrassRoots set-up (as always), building new bathrooms for the Trumansburg Fairgrounds.  Alan spearheaded the project (as always).  It was great to be part of such a creative and appreciated effort (as always).  The picture on the bottom is from a previous year when we built the pavilion that is now the musician stand at the Trumansburg Farmers Market, it came in handy for a few dozen people in a rain storm that visited GrassRoots (as always).

Three Seasons of Catching Up

We had a family reunion with the cousins in Allegany and the McMahons took home the attendance award.  Good thing it wasn't based on mom's personal mass, as shown in this photo she's shrinking substantially.

Three Seasons of Catching Up

I'm great.  Well, a great uncle.  My niece Shannon and her husband Jason had a boy, Declan, after a few extra weeks of waiting.  Everyone is doing wonderfully and Grandpa Tom got in a little trick or treating at Halloween.  The dogs are into the addition to the family as long as they don't get kicked off the couch, and Declan got to visit Mary Ellen at Hospicare.

Three Seasons of Catching Up

Fortunately I've been getting around quite a bit on foot, revisiting some old stomping grounds as well as finding new ones right in the neighborhood.  In the fall Gail and I and several friends did the fifteenth annual Caroline Walkabout.  Perfect day this year and the hills of Caroline couldn't have been more colorful. The route took us past one of my old projects, the embedded tree in the stone wall along the Finger Lakes Trail in Shindagin Hollow State Forest.
Google Street View has added Trail View to some of the more popular trails around Ithaca including the Mulholland Wildflower Preserve on Six Mile Creek.  This screen shot is from just below the 30' Dam, or Joe's Dam as it's titled in their picture.  I was honored by the renaming when I made some efforts to get them to remove videos from youtube that have been drawing hundreds of people to the dam and causing much degradation to the area.  The videos are still up and this summer was particularly bad for various reasons.  The bottom picture shows most of the trails contained in Ithaca College's natural areas.  Gail and I have been commuting through there to get to Hospicare with some regularity, up to ten times a week for me.  I only recall skiing there a couple times for some reason, but I'm really looking forward to getting up there a lot this winter.
Come to think of it, we also walked the Black Diamond Trail from Taughannock to Ithaca in the spring.
I'll take some pictures, maybe even video. and post again before spring.