Wednesday, 7 December, 2006.   We were sitting with Ken at 'Chicken Night' in the Long Island Village ballroom when rumors filtered in that led us to believe the Jumpers we were expecting to join us wouldn't be. It seems a tug approaching the causeway had lost the barges it was chained to and they had threatened the causeway which then was closed so DOT and the Coast Guard could check for damage. We found later the Jumpers were still approaching the causeway and were able to turn around and go home. Of course the disaster in 2001 when eight lives were lost when barges took out a section of the causeway was on everyone's minds. This time the pilings that had been installed after that incident did their job and protected the causeway itself. It was closed only for a couple of hours.

Thursday, 30 November, 2006.  It's old news but we just got some pictures of Caroline and Clifford's lovely wedding last month. It happened in Caroline's cottage across the street and we had the honor of being attendants and official witnesses. Later the bride and groom hosted a reception at VICC in Brownsville. (Pictures by Gail.)

 Tuesday, 31 October, 2006.  As usual, Mary is the one in the family who'll get into the spirit of a holiday. She created quite a stir when she showed up for breakfast at the Long Island Grill in this garb.( Photo by Ken Brock).

 Friday, 27 October, 2006.  This shot (left) from our exterior stairway looks across the Brownsville shipping channel to the San Benito/Port Isabel Navigation District docks. This craft, now standing out in the turning basin as though getting ready to leave. has been docked here for a week or so. It could be a service vessel for off shore oil rigs or for shipping. Our new wind sock is in the foreground.

Thursday, 12 October, 2006.  'Twould seem we returned to Texas just in time. John Malone reports as much as two feet of snow on top of an earlier snow are forecast for the Keweenaw. He attached a couple pictures he took yesterday. (No, the one at left wasn't shot through a screen door; that's snow flakes filling the air.)

Tuesday, 3 October, 2006.  If you've been unable to open this site for a day or so, these notices copied from the up.net home page (Up.net is operated by Baraga Telephone Co. and  host most of our web sites) will explain what happened:

Today's Featured Article Cut Line Monday, October 02 2006 @ 12:10 PM EDT Contributed by: homer@up.net   Long distance, telephone, and Internet access out of the Upper Peninsula are degraded at the moment - it appears that fiber connections have been cut. We will keep you updated. --- 8:00 PM update - We have found that the fiber link was cut in Wisconsin, around Green Bay. Unfortunately there is still no ETA for having the fiber cut fixed. --- Midnight update - The fiber cut has been repaired, long distance, cell service, and Internet access have been restored.

Sunday, 1 October. Pretty routine trip. Some twenty minutes early into Brownsville but Caroline and Clifford were on hand. Stopped at Wings for, of course, wings and a couple of pitchers. Stopped at the storette on the way in--the Camry started right up. C & C had the blinds up and the place aired out. Marta from next door stopped over to welcome us home and the five of us  partied a bit more. 'Twas good to be back in our own beds.

Saturday, 30 September, 2007. Flight a 7:10 so we're at the airport at 6:00. Dropped the rental keys at the Avis desk (which is unmanned unless there's a pick-up scheduled),  had our boarding passes printed out. I wasn't able to do this at home because we're e-ticketed on Continental but the flight from Houghton/Hancock is, of course, Northwest. Went through security check--our Xalatan which we wondered about was okay so long as it was segregated and visible. Mary with her pace-maker has to be hand checked of course. All set. We thought. An announcement: Mechanical problems, there'd be a two hour delay. That would wipe out our connections in Minneapolis and Houston. Back through and queue up to rebook. New bookings would get us to Brownsville late at night. We'd have to call Caroline and we'd probably get a room in Brownsville for the night. Another announcement: Sorry, the delay will be more like eleven hours. It seems the only mechanic in this remote wilderness had gone duck hunting and couldn't be reached.
    The first thing I did was sneak over to the Avis desk and retrieve the keys to our rental just in case. We turned down a booking that would have us overnight in Minneapolis and opted for an itinerary tomorrow similar to today's. Drove the rental to Amerinn in Calumet, called Caroline and rescheduled their good services and called Avis and extended the rental.
    Less than ideal experiences weren't quite over. Returning from a trip to buy a toothbrush Mary spotted the tea dispenser in the motel lobby. She spilled the cup and burned her fingers rather painfully. We'd booked supper back at the Club (much to their surprise) but Mary opted to stay in and keep ice on her fingers. It worked, by the way, eased the pain and no after-effects. I brought our supper back to the motel.

Friday, 29 September, 2006. Today is close-out day at the cottage. It didn't go perfectly. We did have the boxes ready, labels affixed by 9:00 a.m. Only three instead of the four we thought we'd need. But at 1:00 no UPS truck so we squeezed the boxes into the Chevy and took off for Copper World in Calumet which is a UPS pick-up site. The manager there examined the labels, pronounced them all in order and pre-paid and said he'd see the driver, due in about an hour, got them. On to the to airport to pick up the rental. I stopped at Malone's and to get gas in the Chevy. When Mary drove the rental into the cottage, there sat the UPS truck. It was 5:00 or so and the driver thought that'd be plenty early enough. He didn't know our schedule but ignored or wasn't aware of the on-line booking. I suppose we'll be charged the $8.00 pick-up charge anyway. The rest of closing went okay--got the Chevy tucked into the garage, the blinds rolled down, gas pilots and main tank shut off, and got to the Club for supper in good season. Then on to our motel for a rather restless night's stay.

Thursday, 28 September, 2006.  This year I decided to prepare out UPS shipment to Te4xas 'on-line--, print labels, etc. and schedule a pick-up. We're scheduled to pick up the rental at the airport at 2:00 tomorrow so I scheduled a window from 9'00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. for the UPS pick-up.

Sunday, 24 September, 2006.  Coming out of Eagle Harbor toward Agate just after dusk tonight we had a double encounter with Keweenaw wildlife. We were still in 'town' so drifting about 20 mph when Mary spotted a beaver on the shoulder right beside us, unmistakable flat tail she said. I didn't see him but when she looked up we both saw the good sized deer smack dab in the headlights in front of us. By the time I reached for the brakes he had already loped to the shoulder. I say 'he' because I think I saw a small rack at the front end but mostly I saw a good sized rump not six feet from the bumper. If we'd been going much faster he probably wouldn't have made it.

Tuesday. 19 September, 2006. The Jumper's--Mary Ruth, Roy and Davis--annual visit to the Keweenaw was the usual delightful time this event always is. In addition to lots of reminiscing , plain gabbing, a little bit each of sightseeing and shopping, we attended the Calumet Theatre Players' presentation of The Wizard of Oz, took Miscowaubik Club's delightful 'cruise to the Bahamas,' aboard the Isle Royal Queen IV (see left) and celebrated Mary's birthday at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge (see right). Mary's displaying the beautiful hand painted, antique bud vase she received. We even managed to do a little work on the bio.

Sunday, 17 September, 2006.  Squeezed in between two spells of really cold, fall weather, today was mild and only a little windy, nearly perfect for the annual Miscowaubik Fall Color Cruise, this one out of Eagle Harbor, and titled Caribbean Color Cruise. Misco's 'Bahama Mamas' served a great dinner aboard. It included kabobs and of course freely-flowing beverages. Click for a page of pictures of the event.

Wednesday, 13 September, 2006. It looks as though we have our next project lined up once the Jumper book is off to the printers. Mary's Uncle John Pippenger, who passed away last February, often spoke of his paternal grandfather who was a seaman on the Great Lakes and later went to the Philippines. John had fallen heir to the letters which his grandfather had sent to his own mother. We have the loan of those letters, some eighty of them. Uncle John had transcribed some of them but except for references in his own autobiography any transcription seems not to have survived. But the letters have and from the couple we've looked at are surprisingly legible. We plan to key them into digital form. What happens after that will depend on the contents but I believe they have some historical importance with first-hand reports of Great Lakes shipping and the Philippine-American war. At least we can generate a few copies for distribution among Uncle John's family.

 Friday, 8 September, 2006.  Our repatriated chipmunk count now numbers ten. I hope none of them are repeaters but can't be sure they're not.

Wednesday, 23 August, 2006.  Can anyone tell me the species of this little frog or toad? How he ended up sunning himself on the shelf to our grill I don't know. He seemed lethargic or unwell because when I nudged him he just squirmed into a more comfortable position and stayed where he was. ---  Bob Henry located a reference that identified this beastie without a doubt: it's a tree frog (Gray Treefrog, Hyla versicolor and H. chrysoscelis). Speaking of non-human inhabitants of the Thimbleberry Patch, these are four less since that's the number of chipmunks that have eased into our live traps and been repatriated down the lakeshore.

Sunday, 20 August, 2006.  Years ago when the receding ice during the spring thaw took the dock out and I rebuilt part of it, I used the old stringers to outline the parking lot and separate it from the, then, new drain field. John Malone and Bob Yarger had fashioned the cribs and installed a T-shaped dock but I replaced only one straight section. Over the years these timbers lying on the ground rotted away so a project this summer was to replace them. I had 6x6 ten footers delivered thinking these were as large as I could horse around. And I was right. The result is at right.

Thursday, 17 August, 2006.  Texas neighbors Caroline and Clifford left this morning after, we thought, a delightful five day visit. Among other things we did Sunday brunch at Miscowaubik and the little boat trip to the Copper Harbor Light House (see right).

Monday, 31 July, 2006.  Down the hill toward the lake this hemlock, at left, died several years ago. Today Clint converted it into the final dead state at the right. (The sign reads "Hemlock Firewood, Help Yourself, Please Don't Take the Wheelbarrow."} This chain saw exercise was no mean feat for this old codger but was carried out with no serious mishaps. While photographing the tree I took a new shot of the cottage which appears on the "Thimbleberry Patch" page which has a link at the top of this frame.

Monday. 24 July, 2006.  For several years a pair of eagles have nested high up in a tree at the end of Agate's Middle Point. We heard three fledglings had hatched this summer. Today Dad soared over the cottage and took up a long vigil atop a tree down along the South Shore. The three youngsters demonstrated their newly acquired flying prowess by doing wide-ranging arcs around the old man. One got into the picture.

Saturday, 22 July, 2006.  The umbrella in the center of our deck table has developed a few defects so Clint order a replacement on-line. But we really didn't like the new one there so Clint found a different use for it. Of course if there's much of a wind he risks being tipped into the lake still sitting in the Adirondack chair.
    The panhandling Canadian Geese didn't seem to mind the new umbrella and drifted up in large numbers. Earlier however when we tried out the umbrella on the deck our fawn, who was loafing nearby, didn't like it at all. He (she?) fled with great weed-clearing jumps (and much too fast for a picture).

Wednesday, 12 July, 2006.  After an energetic whacking of bushes to give some breathing room around the deck, I sat on the dock with a beverage watching the descending sun. At first only a lone, squawking gull and a couple geese floated by but then the whole tribe of Canadian Geese motored up. I counted over forty and, strangely, only two of this year's goslings were included. I sacrificed most of our last loaf of bread to the cause. After, one old geezer turned a baleful eye at me. I could tell he was a crude type and sure enough he squawked, "Where the hell's Sue?"
    One gull strutted up close to my feet and I couldn't help but wonder where his wife got the bleach that  kept his uniform so pure white.
    On another subject, I note that the hit counter below indicates some 3.54 hits per day average over the last three years. I used a Julian Day Number calculator to help arrive at this average. Click if you'd like to read a little discussion of this tool.

Friday, 7 July, 2006.  The Keweenaw was honored by a visit by Pat Bunnell and her Grandson, David. We celebrated at the Miscowaubik. Pat, along with Mary and Peg, Clint too for that matter, is a refugee from the Wayne-Westland school system. So, there are a lot of names familiar to all of us and these were included in the chat along with our own recent histories. On the way home Mary and I stopped at the Eagle Harbor Cemetery and left floral pieces at both the Pippenger and the Collins sites.

Sunday, 2 July, 2006.  Among the attributes of our little Chevy is a really healthy windshield washer. When I pulled up toward the garage the sun showed how dusty the windshield was. So, I turned on the washer, not noticing Mary had walked up to get in--all primped up ready to go, she was soaked. The worst part was I couldn't stop laughing. Needless to say Mary didn't think it very funny. But by the time we got to Malone's she had dried off and simmered down. We had, by the way, a great meal and a wonderful time in the new Malone ground floor living room. 

Tuesday, 27 June, 2006.  Some time ago local artist, friend and neighbor, Lindy Dahlstrom, presented us with this delightful water color of the Thimbleberry Patch--our cottage here at Agate. Lindy has a few of his works available for sale and might consider a commission and if anyone is interested let us know; we'll put you in touch with him.

Monday, 26 June, 2006.  Today our boxes from Texas arrived on schedule. Most importantly they included our medications and our external hard drive. The latter installed okay which is why I'm now able to do some work on our web pages. (So all the entries below from the 18th on are being written today.) The only problem seems to be that Windows in this computer assigns a different drive letter (G) to the hard drive from the one in Texas (K). This changes the path name for files and seems to confuse some software but nothing serious so far.

Sunday, 25 June, 2006. This morning a lone doe wander across in front of the deck. When I went out and leaned on the rail she looked at me, shrugged her shoulders and wandered off. Took time off from settling-in chores to have Sunday brunch at the Club and meet one of the new chefs, Jason Gillette. Then in the evening it was the first 2006 meeting of the Eagle Harbor Book Group. The venue was the Paul and Bobbie Freshwater home in Eagle Harbor and the agenda featured books by Alexander McCall Smith, including the "Nr 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series. These stories were fun to read partly because they are set in Botswana and the people,  life and form of English there are similar to that we experienced in Swaziland. Both Setswana and Siswati are Bantu languages. Smith apparently had also spent some time in Swaziland because his main character, Precious Ramotswe, bemoans the terrible drivers, "over in Swaziland" and points out how dangerous it is to drive up the hill from Manzini to Mbabane. This, of course, is a stretch of hazardous two-lane highway Mary and I drove many times in spite of efforts to avoid it.

Thursday, 22 June, 2006.  Got the screens up on the garage cum office and whipped a few weeds in the parking lot. Carried one Adirondack chair to the dock. Got the mailbox and the Mining Gazette boxes out. Mary spotted a deer and her fawn wandering across up by the 'barn'.

Wednesday, 21 June, 2006. Drove both cars to the Club for lunch then on to the airport to drop the rental off. Had a short visit with Peg and John when we stopped in Laurium to pick up a couple of sacks of stuff they had stored for us. Peg, by the way, had gotten six liners filled with flowers and placed them in the boxes at the cottage. Things were fine here when we arrived last night but this afternoon a wind storm came through, took out quite a few trees which in turn downed power lines so we were without electricity for about eight hours. We understand the outage extended from Copper Harbor to Ontanogan. The wind took off,  I think wrecked, our aluminum storm door. Maybe I had left it unlatched. A dead tree cam down on the corner of the garage but didn't hurt anything. At dusk Mariner North was making-do with candles but served up some fish chowder that hadn't cooled off yet.

Tuesday, 20 June, 2006.  Clifford and Caroline drove us to Brownsville for our 8:30 a.m. departure via Continental. We were some forty minutes late taking off, some mechanical problem we were told. We made our connection in Houston but barely and were the last to board. Our flight from Houston turned out to be with Mesaba rather than a regular Northwest flight as is usually the case. This had the advantage that our arrival and departure gates were side by side in Minneapolis because Mesaba is the Northwest auxiliary that flies to Hancock. Our rental was waiting for us at the airport. We stopped at Eagle Harbor Inn for a pizza on the way to Agate. Ran into some neighbors and caught up on the gossip--who had died, whose house had burned down and the like. All was well at the cottage. Dan Hodges had all systems go. His note reported that the only problem was that mice or more likely chipmunks had chewed the wire to the alarm on the septic pump and he had to replace it. The Chevy started right up and drove out and the canoe came down from the rack without mishap.

Monday, 19 June, 2006. Closed the computer down, packed the external hard drive and delivered five boxes to Accents, the local UPS site. Tucked the Camry into the storette.

Sunday, 18 June, 2006.  Enjoyed brunch with Caroline and Clifford at Valley International Country Club, our favorite spot for a great buffet and unlimited champagne.

Tuesday, 6 June, 2006.  Sorry for the long silence. Sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the millennium. Nothing bad happening with Clint and Mary as the hurricane season starts and we begin countdown for the trek to the Keweenaw. But distressing news from a number of friends and family. Friend and neighbor Jackie Wasserman passed away following several years while she and Sy coped with the effects of Jackie's earlier stroke. Then Mary's cousin Lara of Eagle Harbor and London who had been expecting twins miscarried. And brother-in-law John reported from the Keweenaw that his bench saw had kicked a board back and removed some flesh from his hand--considerable pain and numerous stitches resulting. And, from still further north in Winnipeg, Ken and Margaret report that Margaret was brutalized by an unstable strange lady and that Ken's passport was stolen from their parked car's glove compartment. Not all this happened on 6-6-6 but not long before.

Tuesday, 2 May, 2006.  We returned today from an overnight in Houston where Mary had her bi-annual check-up. The check-up went okay but we did have one experience surely worth relating: To start at the end, when we drove into the carport I hurried to get my camera so I could record Mary as she disembarked (see right). Why, you may ask, is Mary wearing hospital 'scrubs'? Without going into detail, soon after arriving at MD Anderson this morning Mary found herself in need of something to wear for her 8:00 a.m. appointment. Since it's just an overnight we travel light and she had only clean panties, hardly enough to wear in public. I had joined her in the first floor ladies room with our carry-on luggage but neither it nor I were of much help. But, an angel came to our rescue: A delightful black lady entered, was not overly shocked to find me in the ladies room, and swung into action to straighten everything out. She did this cheerfully, tenderly and with great resourcefulness. Some time before she had been on the staff and knew the ropes. On her cell phone she ordered a set of 'scrubs' delivered in Mary's size, helped her into them, rolled up the pant legs and sent us on to keep Mary's appointment. Bless you, Dear Faye. You are indeed a Dear.

Friday, 14 April, 2006.  For some months now, the navigation bars that used to appear (and still do in the local site) have failed to publish to the server at up.net. The pages these linked to were still in place but the visitor had no way to open them. So, abive I've manually inserted ordinary links to most of the same pages.

Saturday, 8 April, 2006.  Nearing the end of Robert Laughlin's A Different Universe. Not really sorry. The problem is that  much of it is over my head. But he does have many delightful personal anecdotes and very interesting analogies. Often he has a sneer in his voice for the work of fellow scientists but does laud heartily the work of John Bardeen. One of his chapter titles is a John Bardeen quote. 

Sunday, 2 April, 2006.  For anyone interested, I've posted my answer to the question I posed on 13 March.  Click

Saturday, 1 April, 2006. Usually on this day I remember a prank  Frank and I pulled on at least one occasion. Mom could have been in on it. We sneaked into the dining room and filled the sugar bowl with salt, then sat with ill-disguised smirks as Dad heaped the usual big spoonful into his coffee. It was probably our smirks that alerted him because he drank his coffee with no comment, spoiling our fun. 

Monday, 20 March, 2006.  Just to show that Mary has started driving again, here she is behind the wheel.

Monday, 13 March, 2006.  Still limping through Penrose's Road to Reality. It occurred to me to wonder if any of my students remember some physics and if they ever apply what they remember to the world around them. For example, could any answer the question: What do opening a new plastic trash bag and riding in an airplane have in common?

Sunday, 12 March, 2006.  Our Avalon gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago. Friends Ellie and Lindy Dahlstrom e-mailed us this Mauldin cartoon in sympathy. (Note to Cathy: Bad news, we also traded in the Four Runner.)

Saturday, 4 March, 2006.   We had a most pleasant experience this evening. Unable to scare up anyone else to join us, Mary and I went across the causeway to our favorite eatery, D'Pizza Joint. Spring Break has started but we didn't think traffic would be too bad yet and it wasn't. Not finding a small table we took seats at a larger one. As we were starting our pizza five young men came in and, unable to find other seating, joined us at our table. They turned out to be from Matamoras across the border--three high school students and two college students. A nicer group of young people you couldn't find. Their English was excellent and we chatted up a storm. They even listened politely to my story of the Mexican fighter squadron that joined my group in the Philippines back before they were born. When we left each of them stood up and shook our hands. I couldn't help but wonder if (and hope) a group of American youth dining in Matamoras would be as congenial and mature.

Sunday, 12 February, 2006.  We've opened a new web site, this one for the book readers in Eagle Harbor. It's at www.eagleharborbookgroup.org . Awhile back I read an interesting and important book--Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat. I posted comments on the new EHRG site but we've redesigned the site and I removed this title. But, I copied the comments to a page here which you can open by clicking should you be interested.

Tuesday, 7 February, 2006.  We received word today the sad news that Mary's Uncle John Pippenger passed away in Laurium. We've posted his obituary on John's own web page at www.johnnypipp.org.

Saturday, 4 February, 2006.  Mary's picture is to demonstrate that, on the 9th day, she's recuperating from her surgery very nicely . She's surrounded by some of her hospital visitors. I'd have posted a picture earlier but she wouldn't let me take one until she'd visited her hair dresser which she did today. The Swaziland tapestry behind Mary reminds me to report on a pleasant surprise we had today. We got a lovely note from Salinah Mabuza. Salinah, you may recall, was Mary's housekeeper and cooking helper in Swaziland. But I knew her even longer. She was a maid at the George Hotel in Manzini where I was billeted when a short-termer on EMU's curriculum project in the summer of 1977. Salinah and her family were friends throughout our tours in Swaziland. We were surprised that our Christmas card had reached them. It had been sent to my old postal box which I turned over to the family when we left in 1983. Salinah reported that things were going well in Swaziland but that both Mr. Mabuza and her oldest daughter had passed away. We suspect she may have found a native English speaker to help with the very nice note. Salinah's spoken English is very good as is her Africans (South American Dutch) and she even had some ability in Italian. The picture of Salinah and Mary, seated in a hotel garden, was taken when we visited Swaziland from Malaysia in, probably, 1987.

Tuesday, 31 January, 2006.  If you've turned off your browser's pop-up blocker, you notice that today is Harold Barber's birthday. Harold passed away last August. Fond memories of this fine friend, however, are still with us. Happy birthday, Harold. (Photo courtesy Ken Brock.)

Thursday, 15, December, 2005.  We're used to having deer wander into the yard in the Keweenaw, but here in Long Island Village, Texas, it's a much rarer experience. In fact, it only happens at Christmas time.

Thursday, 24 November, 2005.  Whetting our appetites with a libation (actually they only needed wetting) on this lovely Thanksgiving with Clifford and on Caroline's deck. Then we nurtured our bodies and our souls on Caroline's sumptuous turkey with all the fixings. 

Friday, 18 November, 2005.  If you work at it, you can stretch a birthday into a week-long celebration. For example, on Tuesday (two days after Clint's birthday and five days before Caroline's) the scene at the left took place in the Long Island Village Grill. As a surprise, waitress Mary had baked a lovely cake and set it up with our Mary to get Caroline and me there. Gina of the LIV Grill is in back along with Mary the cake-baker who's at the left. Clifford joined us. Then tonight Caroline and Clint were honored at the D'Pizza Joint. (See right.) 'Mike the Piano Man' (but now playing his trumpet) and the vocalist rendered "Happy Birthday." It was Mike of the wait staff that brought the piece of cake with candle and took the picture. More darn fun. 

Thursday, 10 November, 2005.  Some time ago niece Nancy Bardeen sent us this water color which she found among her mother's work, Geraldine Peterson Thomas, that is. The scene depicted I recognize as being from within Dad's workshop. When we added a 'one-cow' stable to a building on the Ranch at Tillotson Corners, Dad built himself a small workshop above it. It was stocked with his tools which included a forge and the anvil pictured in Gerry's painting. It was mounted on a heavy block sawed from a tree trunk. The forge was equipped with a hand-cranked bellows and it was my job to turn the crank until a piece of metal glowed white hot.
    And, I remember boring my students with this 'down on the farm' story and pointing out I had to get the piece of metal white not, not just red hot, because the 'white' resulted from the higher energy, blue photons mixing in the radiation emitted and indicating a hotter temperature.

Sunday, 30 October, 2005.  It's good to have friend Ken Brock back in town. But we miss Margaret, still in Winnipeg.  After brunch on the Island this morning Ken and Mary waited in the bower at the Radisson entrance and played with Ken's camera while I brought the Avalon around.

Monday, 24 October. Another long silence. Sorry.  For those we haven't reached by e-mail: Mary is slowly snapping back from the procedure she underwent last Thursday. At the Harlingen Medical Center she had an angioplasty to open a blocked heart artery which was followed by the installation of a stent. The problem had been spotted by a stress echo exam on Monday. She came home Friday, is doing fine, slowly resuming normal activity. She reports less discomfort this time than during the angioplasty she had sixteen years ago. They've polished their technique, I'm sure.

Friday, 7 October, 2005.  Just entered the five previous postings. The long silence was due, in part, to delays in getting the Texas computer back up and going. We're pretty well settled into our winter routine. Even have a cool front in so the highs today should be in the seventies, not the nineties or above. Some rain is likely.

Thursday, 29 September, 2005.  Flight to Texas pretty smooth. Over an hour late arriving in Harlingen but neighbors Caroline and Clifford were on hand to transport us back to Long Island Village.

Wednesday, 28 September, 2005.  Picked up rental at airport, stowed Chevy, locked up. Stopped at Still Waters for Uncle John and had dinner at the Club. Then on to the Airport Motel.