Back In Rochester

So I’m back in Rochester. 6 am Wednesday July 5th. The flights yesterday were uneventful which is always a good thing. On the flight from Munich to Boston, my seatmate was a convivial young man who’d just been touring Rome, then Greece with a bunch of friends. He had the best time, seeing the sights. Said he liked Rome but Greece was so beautiful and moving. They sailed between some of the islands, saw Athens and Delphi and Mykonos among other things. We talked for quite a while. I was feeling retroactive envy - he’s 16 and last summer he’d been on a cruise down the Nile. I’m very glad that lots of young Americans are traveling abroad, I think it will help the U.S. participate better on the world stage. But, man, do I wish I’d been able to do things like that in high school! My family would have never supported that kind of travel.

There was “weather” in the Boston area and the connecting flight to Rochester was about an hour late departing, so I got to see some of the Germany/Italy game in the bar. I don’t know who won, will have to check when I go online to post this. The flight was fine, we flew around and then through magnificent thunderhead clouds as we were descending. The light was beautiful, low in the sky and it lit the clouds up with a rich creamy glow for miles. I got into Rochester around 6:30 pm local time on the 4th. Greg, Andrea & Gavin were there to pick me up, what a treat to see them!

We got home to their place and had a feast for dinner - grilled steaks and onions. Then we grabbed our drinks and went up the street to friends of theirs, to watch the neighborhood fireworks. Greg & family live on the shore of Cranberry Pond, and across the street is Long Pond. Their friends are on Long Pond, and had a small barge out on the pond filled with fireworks. They started going up and kept firing for at least 30 minutes. All along the shoreline we could see other displays too - some in the distance and several just next door. It was beautiful - a lightly cloudy night, breezy, with the sky just deepening to azure blue. People had ground displays and bonfires going, the kids were running around waving glowsticks (I didn’t see any sparklers). It was a great party. We walked back home in time to watch some fireworks on Cranberry Pond too. Big displays, the large chrysanthemums and multi-stage starbursts. It was much nicer that driving somewhere, jockeying for a spot on the ground, and facing the mob of people all leaving at once. And it was much warmer than New Year’s Eve in Munich.

The big work over the next couple weeks will be moving Mom into full-time care. Then Dad will move into the same facility when he can, perhaps in a month. So we need to consolidate their stuff once more. I’m hoping to find a small, climate controlled storage spot for the photos. I really don’t want them to disappear. This slow dissolution of their household is finally striking me as weird, but it can’t be any better dealing with all this stuff after someone dies either.

We also hope to move forward with selling the folk’s house. I will get over there soon, maybe today, to see what’s left and do some final clearing out. Greg’s meeting a prospective buyer there after work this evening.

Now I’m off to forage for breakfast. It may be time for my first shopping trip to Wegmans; the world’s best grocery store. There’s one a couple miles from here and they’re open 24/7. What a concept!