Thanksgiving

Happy Day to you all.  We are post-meal and pre-movie.  We have had a lovely, quiet day.  We went to New World Home Cooking in Saugerties and ate fabulous food.  Visitors to our Hudson Valley should demand to be taken there.  Very vegetarian friendly and everything really good.  We took a round-about way home and ended up west of Lake Minnewaska where we saw a bear!  Big, black, solitary, rambling around.  Amazing.  Practically in our neighborhood, and certainly in areas where we hike.  We will watch a little football, then walk to our local movie theater for Quantum of Solace.  It's to the City with Randy, Jen, Lauren and Emily tomorrow, then home on Saturday.  I hope to see I've Loved You For So Long on Saturday at Upstate Films, then it's glorious NY football on Sunday - the Giants first then those Jets.

We are thankful for our life and are glad to have you all in it.  

Maria Theresia, 1991-2008

MT died last night after a massive stroke that left her blind and paralyzed.  It started about 9:00 and by 11:30, Ken and I were home burying her in the back, by the rosebush.  We will plant more roses and hope to see that whole line along the back bloom in the future.

We got MT after we visited Matt in Vienna* in the spring of 1991.  She was to be 'company' for another cat, whose name I cannot recall.  We started with cats in 1982 with Cleo, who died on the operating table of the Ann Arbor Humane Society while being spayed.  We then had Dolly for a number of years, Sinbad and Binx for too few and Motley for too many.  We had Lewis and Clark in Delhi, but they did not make the trip to New Paltz.  They live in Michigan, formerly with Erica, and now with Brian, I think (hope).  They were lovely, but three cats was too much, especially as MT, always a spiky sort, was not lonely.

Midge's cat Daisy was put down last week and I heard that Candace's beloved Honey, the golden retriever, died quite unexpectedly recently.  

This is the end of the line for cats for us, although I could envision a time where life is less hectic and we will yearn for a creature to care for. 

* She was named for Maria Theresia of Austria, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Theresa_of_Austria 

Post Obama, continued

Abraham Woods, a Civil Rights activist in the 1960's, a colleague of Martin Luther King and others, died this week.  In his obit in the New York Times yesterday, his granddaughter Marian Bell told this story:  'On election night last week, in his hospital room,  Ms. Bell asked him what he was thinking about the results.  He said, "If I could wake up Martin, Coretta, Rosa" along with other leaders of the struggle, "I would tell them that my son Barack made it."'  

Have a good Friday.

Post Obama

We O-people are indeed glad and heartened by the results of the election.  On the actual day, I was driving back from Providence, exhorting, "America, do the right thing!"  And it did.  Lovely.  As Ken said last weekend in New York City, "I look around and think, everyone I see is a member of the family."  We are one.  This election has turned cynical, hardened liberals into sentimental patriots and it feels pretty good.  

We are in the dog days of November, gray, not yet really cold; but what is ahead is obvious.  With the time change, it is dark by 5:00 and my walk home is via Main Street, brandishing my flash light on the streets of my neighborhood.  But it is light enough in the morning for me to do my walk or run at home, instead of going over to the Wellness Center on campus.  I expect that by Thanksgiving week, I will be back there, however.  

We were in New York last weekend, in a New York arts/culture trifecta:  Radio City Music Hall and the Christmas Spectacular; Joe's Pub and a monologist; and separate movies for separate movie tastes.  Radio City was pretty spectacular, if emphatically Christian and heterosexual.  The 3-D - wowie.  Mike Daisy, the monologist, was energetic and funny/depressing.  His performance was titled "If You See Something, Say Something."  As to movies, I saw "Rachel Getting Married" and Ken saw "Soul Men."  Perfect for both of us.  It rained like mad on Saturday and, as I was thoughtless and even stupid, I managed to ruin my cell phone.  So a new phone for me.  This weekend, we are there again to see Columbia play Cornell in football and another play at The Public.  

The news from the New York budget is pretty dire.  We have been in New York during good times and I am worried about New York City, and about my sweet college.  I keep asking people how long they think it will last and the consensus seems to be 2-3 years.  Timing is everything in life.

Stay warm.

November 1

"Rabbit, rabbit," as Barbara would say.  We are Obama people, and hope fervently that this month brings an Obama victory.  I have been wrestling with partisanship, wanting not to be a nutjob on the left, but I do fear McCain/Palin.  I keep talking myself down: I survived 8 years of Ronald Reagan; I survived 8 years of George Bush; many people I admire admire John McCain; Obama is not perfect.  So we'll see.  Does the future of the nation ride on this election?  I believe so.  

It's been a strange week, and, as we 'fall back' into Eastern Daylight Time, it will continue to be off-schedule.  Ken and I head to Providence, RI, today for the Northeast Association for Institutional Research.  It should be fun, as neither of us have ever been to Providence, which is about 3.5 hours away.  Ken will go to New York on Sunday night via Amtrak, then will come back home on election day, which is when the conference ends.  Both of us voted absentee.  Along with my many other wishes is the hope that we have a winner declared by Wednesday morning.  

We were in Michigan last weekend to celebrate Karen's birthday and Midge's birthday.  It was fun being there in nice weather, as opposed to Christmas.  We saw Ray, Veda, Erica, Jess, Jennifer, Chelsea, Karen, Mike, Jody, Nicole and Eileen.  We saw Midge, Jay, a group of their friends at a Michigan-loses-again/birthday party, as well as Linda and her friend Richard, and Jean and Jim.  It was big fun and lightening quick.  We were in Livonia, Chelsea and Ann Arbor, which was  welcome, as we frequently also drive across the state to Grand Haven.  That trip is coming up at Christmas and for Ken's birthday in February.  

Thanksgiving will be quiet, as traveling on that holiday is so onerous.  We'll be home on the actual day, watching football and probably going to New World Home Cooking in Saugerties for dinner.  Randy and Jen and their girls come in from Utica for a day in NYC and a day in New Paltz.  

Happy November.  Peace.  Joy.  Good weather (i.e., no snow).