To LV and Back

Nicki and I did a quick visit to the Little Valley homested. Thanks to Martha everything was warm and comfy. Driveway was well plowed - bare with enough extra parking off to the left. We three did our required dinner in Ellicottville at the Barn. Got a table quickly, good food, good service, and a friendly family-oriented crowd. Lots of snow. It truly looked like winter. Then home for calls with all the other siblings.

Sunday we returned to Ellicottville for breakfast at Dina's. Again straight to a table and a very good breakfast. We did find out a secret - you can get a half-order of french toast so there is no excuse for getting stuffed. A little shopping, back to Little Valley, and then the return trip to Oberlin.

As to the wireless situation. Yes, we have a problem, but one that can be fixed. There are 2 pieces of equipment involved - Atlantic Broadband's cable modem and our wireless router. The wireless router is fine and will talk to the computer just as it is supposed to. But the cable modem has serious problems and will not establish a lasting connection to the internet which makes the wireless router's well-intentioned efforts fruitless. No amount of prodding and poking would revive the cable modem. I did talk to an Atlantic Broadband technician and a housecall was scheduled. Martha has agreed to make herself available and by this time next week we should have our access re-established. I suspect the technician will simply switch the faulty cable modem for a new one that works. I had brought 2 new and different wireless routers if it had turned out that our router was the cause. On the way back to Oberlin I returned the ones I brought for a full refund. No need to charge any expenses to the estate. I'll use the travel costs as a deduction on my taxes I suppose.

No photos this trip. Never had the opportunity. And no mention of the blurry window - no fog has appeared lately. And no, I didn't try the vaseline trick.

A Blurry Window (redux)

It could be the weather (clear and dry) or maybe it was just speaking out loud too soon - but our foggy window is back. So tomorrow we'll try the next suggestion - applying a layer of vaseline around the inside of the window frame. We were told by the inspector that this will seal the window and prevent moisture from getting between the panes. Why am I skeptical? At least nobody has mentioned tossing a couple silicon packets inside. I'd post a picture but it doesn't look much different from what you've seen below.

At my tech workshop today one of the participants told the story of how an electronic game once owned and cherished by her deceased mother every once in a while will play its jingly music - without being turned on and without batteries of course. I don't think our blurry window and her ghostly music are related. But maybe they are?

A Blurry Window (resolution?)

We had our scheduled visit from the window company. Didn't take him long to recognize and correct the problem. There are these little yellow tabs inside the window frame that have the word "DISCARD" stamped on them. The original installer should have removed these tabs and actually discarded them. And then the frame would properly seal when it shuts. And moisture wouldn't get between the window panes. I would have noticed the labels when I painted the window if the word hadn't been stamped INSIDE the tab where you couldn't see it. We're hoping this was the problem. There has been a little slight streaking of moisture since the inspection but we think that is related to the particular cleaning solution we've used since the installation. The window has been much clearer.

Two Children

Soon after Kendal was started, residents were encouraged to contribute a personal square to a quilt. Ursula created the figures sharing an umbrella. Now every time we visit for supper and pass the quilt on our way as we wheel Ursula to the cafeteria, we stop to visit with "her children".

Ursula Celebrates Her 95th Birthday

There was a "quiet" celebration at Kendal for Ursula's 95th birthday. We had a normal supper in the cafeteria with her that evening. Hans and Norma joined us. Afterward we wheeled her to the lounge area where she discovered a string quartet with piano (quintet I suppose) led by Father Brian who was playing Ursula's violin. And we had a cake and refreshments set up and Kendal had servers to help. There had been some advertisments posted where Ursula wouldn't notice so a healthy-sized crowd collected. The music and treats were enjoyed by all. But we may have happily tired her out.

A Blurry Window (cont.)

Need to do a quick update. Nicki tells me she actually talked to a live person at the unnamed window company (after 5 tries). And they agreed to an appointment to view the window.

I do need to point out that the fog is between the window panes. It isn't there all the time but seems to appear dependent on atmospheric conditions - like beautiful days when it would be nice to watch a sunset from the comfort of our cozy living room.

A Blurry Window

This isn’t a real entry to my blog - this text and the companion photos are hopefully temporary. The pictures are only here to “share” with the company that said they were going to make an appointment to examine our potentially defective blurry front window. Maybe the next time we talk to the company they can check this blog to see exactly what we are talking about. Just click on the little photo to see a bigger version.

Cavs Game & Weekend

We finally attended an actual Cavaliers game at the "new" Quicken Arena (the "Q"). We went last Thursday evening with Judy and Steve. Our seats were in the lower level behind one of the baskets - the last row before the loge level - just above and behind us was an empty loge - which meant nobody was really sitting behind us and therefore it was a little less noisy. A "little less noisy" though doesn't mean much as the whole experience is a deluge of constant noise. The music, announcements, contests, dance teams, cheerleaders, blaring lights circling the arena, and canned "Get out of your seats" screams have taken over the game. At one point they were handing out free balloons that turned out to be extremely loud noisemakers which the youths in the seats below and to our right found very entertaining. I'm not sure how they could use the noisemakers and talk on their cellphones at the same time but they could. The show seems to be everything - the game happens somewhere beneath and despite the production. But our seats were good enough and if you block out the noise and hubbub you can enjoy the athletic event. Lebron was good but the Houston Rockets were better that night. The Cavs looked a little slow and they didn't have Larry Hughes and their 3-point shots weren't even close. They fell way behind early (17 points) and made up a lot of ground late in the game but it wasn't enough and they lost 90-81 - which ended a six-game home win streak. Tracy McGrady was Houston's star and it was fun watching him work. And Lebron does have big-time aura and now we can say we've seen it firsthand.

Our weekend has been somewhat restful which was needed after this long week. We've watched 3 movies at home - Me and You and Everyone We Know, Broken Flowers, and Bad News Bears. "Broken Flowers" was very good but a bit slow. "Bad News Bears" has fun parts but is very predictable and follows the original almost exactly. ""Me and You..." was excellent as a sort of thoughtful modern art performance piece but quirky and a bit risque in parts. But this was the sort of weekend where planting ourselves on the couch with a couple of peaceful warm dogs while winter did its thing felt just right.

We do miss kayaking. How many days until the thaw?

California Rendezvous

Our excursion to Oakland was concluded very successfully. Wednesday morning Nicki and I took a 9:00 am flight out of Cleveland, arriving in San Francisco by 11:30 that morning - uneventful non-stop flight - leaving the chill of Ohio for almost balmy California. Rented a car and arrived at Sarah’s apartment just in time to see Martin heading off to play soccer with friends. After a bit of lunch we headed off to the Oakland Baha’i Center to help Sarah and Laura clean and set up for that evening’s family dinner.

Dinner was an opportunity to meet Sergio’s brothers and sisters and their families. Lots of little kids, good conversation and good food (P.F. Chang's take-out ). Sometimes a little translation was needed but overall it was a good way for our family to meet his family. Afterwards it was back to Sarah’s place for some Christmas gift exchanging. Nicki and I stayed at Nisa and Josh’s place while we were in Oakland (they were out of town). Nisa’s family owned our house in Oberlin before they moved west - her dad was one of my many principals.

Thursday started with a brunch at the Crepevine. A few of Sarah’s friends met us there. Again good exotic breakfast food. From there we dropped Martin off and Sarah, Laura, Nicki, and I drove through San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and up Highway 1 to Stinson Beach. The typical Highway 1 experience of twisty narrow road with great views of the ocean. It was a gray windy cool day but we were on the beach enjoying the surf. Perhaps the highlight was seeing a whale carcass on the rocks being enjoyed by the seagulls. Back onto Highway 1 heading back to Oakland this time over the Richmond Bridge past San Quentin and past a flaming construction truck. We collected Martin and Sergio and had dinner at the SFO Pizzeria Bar & Grill in Jack London Square. And we ended the day with TV at Sarah’s.

Friday we began the day by putting Martin on his flight back to New York. Then the 4 of us headed for the coast starting at Half Moon Bay and driving south first to San Gregorio State Beach where Nicki and I did get out of the car despite the high winds and a bit of rain in the air and as far as Pescadero State Beach where we didn’t get out of the car because of the higher winds and heavier rain. And did I mention rain? This is where the bad weather began for us. We retraced our steps back towards Oakland with a stop at a mall to procure the girls’ massage fix. Once back at Sarah’s apartment it was some TV and leftover food and relaxing. Finally about 8:30 Sarah and Laura headed for the Oakland airport to catch Laura’s flight back to Hartford while Nicki and I let the rental’s navigation system guide us back to the San Francisco airport where we joined the throngs as most flights, including ours, were delayed due to the monsoon rains outside. Finally at 1:30 AM our flight departed. The captain warned us the first couple hours might have uncomfortable turbulence but it didn’t really happen and the only thing uncomfortable was the awful sappy movie. I couldn’t watch it even with free headphones. And at 8:30 AM we landed back in Cleveland where it was 20 degrees cooler and just as gray but not rainy. New Year’s Eve Day was spent recovering.

All in all a good but short trip. Nice to have the family together. And certainly a memorable experience. For a more complete set of photos just click here.

Foods for Thought

Sam enjoys her leather candycane.

We started Christmas day lazily - up at the crack of 10:30. No little kids to pressure us and the dogs enjoy a long quiet morning. We did open gifts and everything was greatly appreciated. The rest of Christmas Day was full of food. Started with a large breakfast of fried mush and sausage - think we’ll make that a tradition. From there Nicki prepared a mid-afternoon roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes, squash, peas, etc. Martin brought Gretchen and her two children. (Ed - we pulled out our old castle with the little people and Bobby, the 4-year old, focused on it). With barely a break (or opportunity to loosen the belt), Laura and I collected Ursula at 4:30 and transported her to Norma and Han’s where Nicki joined us for another dinner - ham, chicken, shrimp, etc. Such a variety and abundance of food. Ursula enjoyed the company and food.

Grandma has a way of telling us when she’s had enough photos.

After that celebration Nicki and I took Ursula home. Just after we got there I discovered that the TV in the lounge down the hall was showing a concert of Renee Fleming with Christoph Eschenbach conducting. Ursula was quite pleased to see her “godson” performing and proclaimed such several times. While she watched I setup the new radio we all got for her - hopefully she won’t notice the change and will accept the gift. Tomorrow’s goal will be to teach her how to enjoy the music.

Back home all was quiet as Laura went out to visit friends and Martin was off with Gretchen. Nicki and I talked with Sarah and then lazily reviewed the day and digested.