Moving up

Well, this is it, folks.

Father's Day and an absence of fathers... 

It's our first holiday without at least one of them.

We are the last ones left from this 1969 family picture.

It's official.

We are now the Older Generation.

Looking Back: November 2015

The month of November began as it always does, with Granddad's birthday.

He celebrated 96 with balloons and company,

and complete disbelief that he was that old.

And he enjoyed the company and the celebration,

but the candy really got his attention!

Then there was the traditional Guy Fawkes bonfire,

with spectacular sparks flying high over our heads.

In fact, November is a month of traditional celebrations, isn't it?

We celebrated the Beaujolais Nouveau with a wine party,

a taste of the brash new wine and a glass of good old wine.

It's good to have traditions.

HoosierKitty added a new one to Thanksgiving: cranberry cordial.

It was a lovely addition to the usual feast,

which we enjoyed all the more for the Indy Duo who shared it with us.

There was even more storytelling, with PC at the IU Art Museum.

and snow, actual cold wet snow, made a very brief appearance.

But mostly November was bright and clear,

so busy and so full of parties and events and work

that I made little record of it beyond a few photos.

Looking back...October

I guess I didn't post the rest of Fall, after the important event of my birthday.  There really was more to the month:

 Storytelling.. in Indianapolis, at the Crown Hill Cemetery, to start the spooky story season.

 Cousins going on the artist studio tour in Brown County,

finding interesting and original places as well as art. 

 Hiking, admiring the leaves,

 and their reflections in the still lake.

 Happy to have family together.

 Then, the more mundane aspects of the month:

the house being painted,

 days downtown at work.

More storytelling, then--

Halloween.

a full October. 

At the lodge, then and now

In 1971 we were brand new Grad Students and moved to Bloomington. All our parents came out to see where we were living, and we took them to the Brown County State Park.

Here's a snapshot of my mother sitting on the stone wall in the back of the Inn.

It was fall, but still you can see the surrounding hills behind us.

This past weekend I got to stay at the Inn with Hoosier Kitty 

and she took a picture of me on the same wall, 

looking at the same skyline.

So is that exactly the same small tree over our right shoulders

down by the drive???

The veranda still looks the same, and I do believe they still have the same furniture!

Oh March, you mixed-up month

Oh yes, March, you came in like a lion,

with more snow than we cared to see.

And by your end there were flowers (even though your weather wasn't lamb-gentle).

You brought birthdays

and birthday celebrations

and welcome company.

You saw Granddad getting better

and the poor lame horse getting worse.

You brought a long anticipated treat

that brought us together

for good times.

And the good times were rolling along...

until our own Jersey boy left the table 

and the good times stopped rolling for a while.

Yup.

March, you are just a mixed-up month.

New in the New Year

"Ring out the old, ring in the new..."

 Not many of us actually get a really new start to the year.

At the end of last year the Working Man's office home was sold.

 So we all went out to help him look for a new one.

 We liked this large empty space, full of possibilities

 and with great views of downtown.

However, shortly after we looked at that space, another one became available.

 It was in the very building that his company's very first office was located!

We liked the idea of coming full circle.

 The space was already divided into offices.

 The view included the courthouse square --

and the excellent coffeehouse across the street.

 The Man gets to start the year in a new space, with a clean desk.

We'll toast to that!

Granddad in Winter

Granddad was not too sure about Christmas.

It's hard for him to keep track of the months.

He  did have a few clues that it was a holiday.

(You know he loves hats any time.)

He had company,

and he always loves having company.

He amused the folks in his dining hall on New Year's Eve.

The horn was loud enough that even the hearing-challenged heard it.

But the next day, having dinner with his family all around the table, he had to head out for the ER.

He was in the hospital for seven days.

He doesn't remember this at all.

 It was worrying enough to bring far-flung family together to visit him.

He left the hospital to return to the nursing home in palliative care.

Declining, on oxygen, not eating, feeble...

we all sat and worried around his bed.

Yesterday I went to the nursing home as usual.

The nurse could hardly wait to tell me what Granddad had done.

I expected to hear that he'd maybe sat up in his wheelchair.

Well, yes, he did that.

And more.

He'd gone off with a group of nursing home residents to have lunch at the Golden Corral.

What?!

"I filled my belly," says the man who has been refusing food for three weeks.

That Granddad!  

Just like him to go from death's door to a steak dinner.

As his favorite hat says:

"I'm 95.

I'm allowed."