The Mews

Simran came over to Alu's for the weekend. We went to Pettaquamscutt Cove in Narragansett (feather Indians, dot Indians - they like long names) and rented kayaks and kayaked down the cove towards the ocean. Every time a power boat went by, I hustled pretty hard to cut the wake perpendicularly because I didn't want to flip the kayak and dump the kids in the water - but Evan and Vivian thought wakes were the best things and they screamed like they were on a roller coaster. I didn't get a photo of us kayaking because I left my phone in the car, but here's Vivian's sketch of our kayak - I'm sure you can tell who is who (Evan, Vivian and I were in one kayak).

And here's a photo of the beautiful Rhode Island countryside when we went for a hike in the Ninigret National Wildlife refuge where we returned for a peek through the telescope at night for a look at Saturn and her rings. Thanks to Michelle for arranging it. And to Alu for all the uranus jokes.

One evening we worked up an appetite and drove to the Rathskaller for dinner. On our way we ran into a huge downpour and hail and a near whiteout. The Rathskaller had a two hour wait because they had to move their outside dinners to the seating wait list. So we returned to town and went to Alu and Michelle's trusted Mews - the pub and pizza joint down the street. Bam - one and a half hour wait. We put our names on the wait list and walked down Main Street in old Wakefield to Brickley's Ice Cream - the best ice cream in Rhode Island.

Much later we got seated at the Mews in a booth plastered with dollar bills. Vivian and Evan put up one of their own - with a Minions / Banana themed note and we all returned home full and lived happily ever after.

Hunting for Booty

Michelle keeps raising the ante. This year's 3rd annual treasure hunt began many weeks ago when Michelle started collecting the loot that the kids would later accumulate during the hunt. Books, educational and practical items, gag gifts, fun stuff, t-shirts. The last couple of packages arrived from Amazon after we did and Michelle shooed the kids to the living room and put the final touches - 10 bags for each child hidden at different places in the huge front yard at Woodbine.

On the morning of, Alu drew the map of the yard on his computer and numbered the map to match the numbers on the bags. Michelle had created a whole system of puzzler type clues but because Evan isn't a good reader, she ditched that portion of the treasure hunt. And then finally they were off.

It involved alternating moments of thoughtfulness and tonnes of running very fast. And in Vivian's case, lugging around their loot in an ever heavier bag.

They got all this amazing stuff. But the "fart slime" was what kept their attention for the next couple of days. Our intellectual kids!

Beach Buns

Due to my various finger issues I can't get into water for a few more days. But we love us some Rhode Island beach time and the kids had a blast at East Matunuck beach which is about 10 minutes from Alu's. This year there were no swaths of smelly red sea weed floating around but the beach seemed slightly less crowded - perhaps a combination of being a weekday and slightly cooler. More room for boogie boarding.

This year marked another milestone. It's the first time in eight plus years of beach going that Jo and I could chill on the sand or wherever and the kids managed themselves.

Heading to Harvard

No. Vivian or Evan haven't made it to Harvard. But we took them there nevertheless. Simran is in Cambridge for a summer of Shakespeare course work at Harvard and we went to visit her last Thursday. We drove to Wickford Juction, about 25 minutes from Alu's. Then we took the MBTA commuter train to Boston - which took about 2 hours. And finally the Red Line from South Station to Harvard Square.

We met Simran and walked to the Shake Shack where we all loaded up with shakes and frozen custards. Then Simran showed us around campus and chatted with us and we came back to Harvard Square to meet Alu who came over after work and we all walked to a nice New England farm to table place for dinner. Vivian decided to try one of my oysters and after about 30 seconds the poor oyster had to come back out the same way it went in. The otherwise very pleasant and uneventful dinner was followed by a trip to JP Lick's where Simran treated the kids to ice cream. By the time we retraced our path back to Wakefield it was late at night but the kids were still active - I think it's been days since they have slept before 11pm.

Here's to hoping that a trip to the venerable institution makes Evan and Vivian slightly more sensible. Kind of like Rick Perry's glasses.

Home Away

We managed to stay in the white wooden house for four days. Evan had a play date with Henry. But Vivian invited Ava an Eleanor and so the boys had a tea party with the girls instead of "playing with weapons".

I took the kids to the Shah's one evening, where Evan tranced to meditation music with all the fervor of a new age prophet.

One afternoon we went to the Asian Resource Center for AFSAA's first annual 10,000 Cranes of Peace Origami Festival - an afternoon of origami, Japanese drumming, face panting, fashion shows, book reading, and a 10 minute origami competition in which Ava won a prize.

One morning I woke up and found Vivian sketching her dragons as if they were still art. Then she ran out and stuck this sign (photo below) on her door. I asked what it was. "Vivian & Evan Chatterjee. VEC Art Studio. Now, how much will you pay for one of these pictures?" 

And in the four days in Austin Vivian went to the orthodontist twice to get her mouth filled with metal. We were worried about how she would react. The first afternoon she could not finish one tiny Teo's gelato in an half hour. The next morning she carefully sipped an Acai berry smoothie from Pacha. By the next day she was her ravenous self and ate everything in sight. And she never got into a funk about the dental work and hasn't complained when Jo cranks the expander with a little metal key every other night to stretch out her palette to make room in her mouth for her adult teeth.

After about four days in Austin, one morning we woke the kids up at 4:30am and headed to the airport. We witnessed a beautiful sunrise over Texas, stopped for lunch at BWI and, landed in Providence soon after. Evan walked into Alu and Michelle's home and asked "Aunt Michelle - when is the treasure hunt?"

Back at the White Wooden House

On Thursday evening we said our goodbyes and the four of us left for Austin. Later, as we sped down the Turnpike, we witnessed a glorious sunset on the Kansas prairies. We spent the night in Norman, Oklahoma, had breakfast at a Cracker Barrel, lunch at a Rudy's and arrived in Austin and back to our white wooden house by late afternoon.

Vivian left for Slumber Falls camp three weeks ago. Since then this is the first time we are all back home. And the kids have changed in this time.

They have found religion. Again.

The other evening when we were driving to Auburn Jo spotted an interesting sunset - the rays of the sun could be visibly seen spreading out from under the clouds. I mentioned how it resembled Hindu calendars and Mexican religious art where you can see radiance emanating from the gods and their favored ones. Evan took a deep breath and said "Each one of those rays are the connection between God and one of the people who love God".

And Vivian has been staging "shows" with her cousins. In one they depicted the birth of the baby Jesus. Kai was Joseph (it's his name anyway). Grace was Mary. Vivian was naturally baby Jesus. They sang hymns and quoted passages from the bible. For something cobbled together quickly they did a pretty decent job.

I'm blaming Slumber Falls. Apparently at bible study (huh?) the lady asked if anyone wasn't a Christian and Vivian raised her hand. Special attention was showered on Vivian and at the end of the three day camp she asked Vivian if she wanted to be a Christian and Vivian did the happy dance and said she did. The power of persuasion. Why perfectly normal human beings suddenly leave their comfortable lives and fly off to Syria to join the jihad.

On a different note, it's nice to be back. I walked in, said hello to Crazy and went to the bathroom just because I could sit there for a while without wondering whether there are two or three people waiting outside. 

Amish Cottage

One day we drove from Dawson to Jamesport in Missouri to pick up Uncle Tom and Aunt Anna's new beautiful Amish built oak dinning table and chairs that they had ordered a few months ago. There were some sheds and this tiny play cottage outside the store. Vivian really liked it and beseeched me to buy it for her. She almost had tears in her eyes when I told her that it was ridiculous for her to think I'd buy the cottage. Then she tried to make me promise that I would build her one in Austin and made me take photos of it's interior. And finally, she amended that to promise that I would ask neighbor Amy's dad to build her one.

I noticed that the Amish woman at the furniture store wrote out our bills by hand but then she swiped my credit card at a standard credit card reader. Back in the shop I heard a pneumatic tool being used. When I stepped out of the store I noticed it had large skylights on the roof and relied completely on natural light. And there was a small wind vane and a solar array - I guess to run the credit card reader and whatever was connecting it to the grid. I asked the young Amish man about the sound of the power tool and he joked "but we use it using our hands so that's a hand tool".

Aunt Anna said that once a while when the Amish need to travel long distances, they will hire a driver. I checked on the internet and found that using diesel generators to power pneumatic tools is kosher too. That may seem like cheating, but the fact is that by choice they still don't use electricity to light, cool, heat or power their appliances or their homes and in today's world that is amazing. The things you do for faith.

Bunk Beds

At the Ridge Street house in Dawson there's a closet at the top of the stairs in a hallway-ish room thing and then a bathroom to the right and a large room with three big picture windows looking out on to the CRP grassland behind the house.  The large room is to become Jo and my bedroom someday. One of the projects for this trip was to get rid of the large object that currently occupies most of the room. 

That object is a good quality pool table. The previous owner, Mr. Cantu, was a pool enthusiast and according to Carol, he was pretty good at it. We suspect that the table was brought in through one of the large picture windows before they were built. The only way that pool table is leaving this room is in pieces.

So one evening after dinner I took a bottle of wine and wandered up to check out the pool table.  It was covered in bedsheets. I uncovered and cleaned it and played a few rounds. Over the next few days, Uncle Tom, Nicolle, Michelle, Jo, Carol, Amy, and I shot some pool on that table. Now that table is not going anywhere (I really didn't have to campaign very hard).

Instead, Jo and I will continue to occupy the smaller bedroom at the top of the stairs towards the front of the house. It has a nice cross breeze when you leave the windows open but then it sounds like you are being run over by 18 wheelers all night long as they roar past on Highway 75 just inches from your pillow.

A second effect of the pool table staying at its current location is that we need additional beds for children. So Michelle and I decided to convert the closet into bunk beds. Cade is demonstrating in the photo that Plan A could simply be to throw a pillow on each shelf to sleep four comfortably. 

Instead, Michelle and I spent a hour on Uncle Tom's porch stealing his internet to research bunk beds. Four days later here are the beds. Michelle is holding up the folding beds because the hardware to latch them folded up isn't in place yet.

And here is Vivian and her cousins and Evan trying out the bunks. We estimate it took about $300 in materials and then a bit more for my finger.

On the very last cut for the very last piece of the frame I inadvertently stuck the very tip of my left middle finger into the edge of the circular saw and caught a bit of flesh, nail and bone. The lady, a PA at the ER at Falls City could only apply one stitch because the rest is "like hamburger". Michelle rushed me to Falls City and sat by me for my two hours of excellent treatment and did very well in spite of admitting that she is a bit squeamish, especially when the lady said "hamburger". And she must have been hungry because she said it a lot.

The other funny thing was when they asked me for my emergency contact. I said "My wife, JoEllen Clark". "Address?" they asked. "Same as mine" I responded. "Uh - is she in Austin? We'd like an emergency contact nearer here" they continued as they eyed Michelle. And that's when Michelle sweetly said "Oh - she's just across the street from this hospital - in the swimming pool". At that instant you could have stood in the ER and heard a pin drop in Radiology, all the way across on the other side of the Community Medical Center of Falls City. They will be talking about that old Puerto Rican and his nice but slightly squeamish mistress and his uncaring swimming pool wife for some time.

ps. I broke the tip of my pinkie on my right hand three weeks ago while flipping tires during a workout. It's in a splint. So Vivian and Evan think it's hilarious that I have four usable fingers left in each hand. Throw in my dislocated big toe from soccer last summer and suddenly your future ain't looking too bright if you are a digit belonging to me.

Doorly

Can you love a zoo because of it's name? Henry Doorly is a great zoo with a lovely name (I can't stop saying it). I had dragged my dad down there during his one trip to Nebraska back in 2007. One morning we loaded up all the kids and most of the adults into two cars and drove off to Omaha to do the Doorly again.

The photos are: Vivian and Evan playing with the huge floating stone globe at the entrance, riding the carousel (which they did several times to ride both the tiger and the dragon), playing on a fake hippo, Evan feeding a budgie, Vivian peering at a penguin as a scuba diver scrapes penguin poop off the habitat floor, Evan staring at a bonnethead shark (was this born of a virginal birth?), Vivian in front of a capuchin monkey's fake tree within the dome of the Tropical rain forest, and Evan pretending he is flying while standing inside an acrylic bubble viewing bay for the gorilla habitat.

The kids had a great time. There's a lot of construction and a huge African savanna area is being built. 

After the zoo we stopped in the Old Market area of Omaha for dinner (Ahmad's Persian Cuisine - overpriced with tolerable food) and chocolates (Old Market Candy Shop - a bit of heaven). The kids had been on their feet all day so we trudged back to the car and headed for Dawson. As we left the area I caught sight of the beautifully restored Union Station which is now the Durham Museum. Omaha - we'll be back.

Take a Hike

Was it to get in a bit of training for my Alaska hike next month? Or was it to get away for a few hours from a house full of moody children, barking dogs and grumpy adults? Either way, the Steamboat Trace trail between Nebraska City and Brownville seemed exactly what I needed. Jo dropped me off at noon one day beside some deserted grain bins on the side of a lonely farm road and took my photo in case it was the last time anyone saw me. She had packed me two sandwiches, a bag of pistachios, and two water bottles.

For the next six hours I walked along some pretty wooded trails, portions of the historic Lewis and Clark trail, beside the Missouri river, through corn fields, and along swamps with all kinds of birds including a large bald eagle. I didn't see one other person in either direction till I walked back into civilization at TJ's Tavern in Brownville where the bartender asked me if I had just walked off the trail. "Do you get a lot of hikers?" I asked her, thinking that how she had reached the correct conclusion. "No. I've never seen anyone walk off that trail. But you aren't from around here" she explained.

Jo picked me up from TJ's and drove me back to Dawson. I'd say the 18 mile hike wore me out but it served it's purpose splendidly well.

Keep Nebraska Weird

When in Dawson one visits the local Shopko, Orcheln or Ace Farm and City at least once a day. By local I mean nearest - up highway 75 to Auburn or diagonally across to the south east to Falls City - both approximately 20 miles away (the nearest Home Depot is either in Kansas or Iowa - we went to the one in Iowa and that marks my only visit to the Hawkeye state to date). And I found a type of lip treatment in all these stores that I was unfamiliar with. Free range chicken poop lip junk or La Chick Fancy chicken poop lip glace.

The other strange thing is how they park. So you come up to Frosty Queen and hop in to buy yourself a crunch cone. The parking lot wraps around the building. You just pull up alongside the direction of travel and park abreast on one another. I think the logic is that it's easier to pull through specially if you are driving something other than a compact car. And that the parking lot will never be full so space efficiency isn't a problem. One evening we drove to Auburn to see a movie and this is how the cars parked on the side of the main street. Sucks to be the guy whose job is to paint the utterly disregarded slanty parking lines.

The movie was pretty funny (Minions). The tickets were ridiculously cheap ($6 for adult 3D), and the concessions were reasonably priced. State is the only movie theater in a 30 mile radius of Dawson and it is curiously owned by the Auburn School District. 

The Good Life

When you cross into Nebraska - which one seems to do several times a day, you pass a welcome sign that says "Nebraska...the good life".

The corn fields are very green. The tassels wave in the wind and the ears tucked away below get fatter by the day. When it's cooler it's hard not to be outdoors. Brain took me to their vegetable patch and we picked tomatoes, radishes, onions, peppers and squash and I ate them later that day.

One evening Nicolle and I ditched our wives and kids and joined Uncle Tom's family for a wine tasting. His friend Dennis has been dropping off bottles of home made wine into Tom's truck every time he is up at the farm and I have already sampled three of four types. But at the "tasting" we drink a whole cooler filled with wine bottles. Cherry, strawberry, rhubarb, elderberry, cranberry, Texas Muscadine, regular grapes, and others. This wine has no resemblance to that dry oaky full bodied Cabernet that Jen and I favor but it is legitimately wine. It's like drinking liquid jams and jellies of the smoothest yummiest flavors and it goes down really well slightly chilled.

The kids - all eight of them - play a couple of times a day at the sad little park four blocks down Ridge Street which is also Highway 75 and is a major thoroughfare for trucks. Cade manages to get almost every one of them to honk for him - so we can tell how far the kids are from the house by the loudness of the honks.

There is no internet or cable at the house. Our phones barely work. So, like the kids, we a forced to chat, read, slow down, and spend time with each other.

The good life.

Grain Bins

One morning while I was still making my omelette Uncle Tom walked up to Cade and asked if he wanted to go to the farm. Cade ran in and got Evan and off they went.

After my omelette was cooked and consumed Carol and I rounded up the rest of the kids and drove up to meet him. Tom was taking a look at the brand new grain bin that he was having put in. The kids and I helped.

When Evan started climbing, the man who seemed to be the boss of the hard working crew who were building the grain bin took off after Evan - making sure that if he fell he wouldn't have too far to go. All the kids clambered up one after another. Vivian sprang up the rungs of the ladder like a monkey that she is.

After about 15 minutes in the hot sun the kids lost interest and wandered back towards Uncle Roy's home. I hung back with Uncle Tom and peppered him with a hundred questions about the construction, usage and economics of grain bins and when he finally had enough we headed home.

Later that day when Evan was recounting the story to Jo he said "And then in the big new shed we saw Uncle Tom's green and yellow Dear John tractor and the orange tractor that is not a Dear John". There's a city boy. (Here are some pictures of the Dear John and not Dear John tractors from an earlier visit)

Fourth of July

Dawson according to the 2000 census had 209 people. By the 2010 census that had dropped to 146. The school where some of Jo's cousins went closed more than a decade ago. Thirteen of us are adding considerable heft to the town. And it's diversity.

But while there's plenty of enthusiasm and one can hear the occasional firework since we got into town late on July 2, there is no town or community 4th of July celebration. So we drove to Humboldt with Uncle Tom and his family to see the fireworks. We settled down on the sidewalk on Nemaha Street across from the ballpark with blankets and towels and bug spray and waited for it to get dark. Evan wanted to climb on my shoulders with the last of his energy - he was ready to sleep. And Vivian hung out and sounded grown-up with her older cousins. Cousin Amy was prepared as usual and slipped me a couple of cold ones to put me in the patriotic spirit.

When the fireworks started and I looked up I noticed that the street lamps on Nemaha were decorated with flags. And I could sit where I was on the sidewalk on a blanket and watch the fireworks explode several hundred feet up in the air directly behind the flag fluttering over my head. So I turned into a ninja Japanese tourist and spent the rest of the evening looking at life through the screen of my iPhone. I took a few hundred photos, most of which were duds - but I liked this one.  Happy Fourth, y'all.

Road Trip

On a Thursday morning in early July Jo woke Evan and Cade up early to get them ready. I put the last few things in the car. Carol drove up in her truck with her dogs and we took off towards Nebraska. 

Our first stop though wasn't that far from home. We pulled into Waco to meet up with a third car - Nicolle and her brood along with Vivian who I hadn't seen in four days. We met at Michelle's mother's business and the dogs got to stretch their legs and empty their bladders amongst the mobile homes for sale. 

About thirteen hours later after innumerable stops across four states where dogs and children hopped in and out of cars we were quite fortunate to arrive with our entire party intact. We tumbled out of the various cars - all eight children, five adults and six dogs - into the side yard of the house on the south east corner of Ridge and Tenth in the bustling metropolis of Dawson, which is to be our home for the next 15 days.

Uncle Tom and Aunt Anna walked up to welcome us and right there I got my first drink of local home made wine. I think it's going to be all right.