Blog #25

May 12-26

Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It’s been 14 days since my last blog post, and my readers are worried.

Before I jump into our travels, I have to mention that it’s been so beautiful chasing the spring. The buds on the trees gracefully developing into light green foliage. The whole world changes from a black&white photo to Kodachrome. Nature is amazing. Spring always reminds me of the Robert Frost poem my daughter introduced me to which I finally memorized.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

New Hampshire to Boston

When last we met, David and I finally had a chance to see where our son has been living since last August. We had a great time with Alex and his husband Ben but now had to hit the road to see Brianna and go to her Master’s degree graduation.  

We quickly hitched up the morning of our departure and met Rachel at a local gas station – not at Alex and Ben’s apartment. You may wonder why and that’s a bit of a story.

History of Tight Places

One of the challenges of driving a truck and trailer is always keeping an eye out for whether you can extricate yourself from whatever situation you drive into. Let me go back to the beginning. Our very first trip with our first Airstream we drove out to Hither Hills Campground in Montauk. We got a late start (how surprising!) and took a wrong turn and ended up on a single lane, sandy road lined by pine trees. The sun had set and it was pitch black. If there is only one way in, there is only one way out – by backing up, in this case ¼ mile. After much nail biting, hair pulling and cursing, we extricated ourselves from that situation. This is why we always try to figure out how to get out before we drive in.

Is this a metaphor for our lives right now? Selling a home and not sure of how we will get off the long and Weinstein road? Finding the right path? Sometimes we think we know where we are going, but no one ever really does. .

So, we picked up Rachel at a BIG gas station where we could turn around. First stop, Wellsley, MA to Caskata to look at some wedding china for Rachel. I love wedding shopping! 

Wompatuck: We like the Name AND the Place

Second stop was to drop off the trailer at Wompatuck State Campground near Hingham, MA. It was the first day of camping and we were one of the first in that day. We’ve stayed at this beautiful campground a number of times, mostly because it is 30-45 minutes from Boston. As with many state-run facilities, it has a gorgeous setting. The campsites are pretty far apart and shaded by many varieties of trees. That first day we only saw a couple of other families.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wompatuck_State_Park

We were on a schedule so we unhitched without much ado, and headed up to Boston. Third stop was Brianna’s apartment to drop off Rachel’s suitcase and pick up Brianna. I know she is an incredibly fastidious person (she doesn’t take after her mother in this regard), but I needed my sunglasses inside as everything was so sparklingly clean! We found a place to park our big honking truck near the Seaport and went to the Barking Crab, one of our kids’ favorite places for seafood in Boston. I think it’s mostly tradition, but the food is excellent. Grandpa Mitchell and Aunt Nancy met us there and joined us for lots of fun and laughs. We headed back to Wompatuck because the next day was gonna be big.

Graduation Weekend

Graduation was Friday morning. The previous night’s gang plus Grandma Cynthia, Alex and Ben gathered at our meeting spot and all entered the storied home of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park. Yes, Bri’s graduation was at FENWAY. So exciting!

Our brilliant daughter finished her Master’s in a year because she planned ahead. Brianna took many grad level classes at Northeastern before she completed her undergrad degree last year. With a few more credits this year, she could rolled her classes into a secondary degree. Did I mention that she was a Cybersecurity major? She’ll never lack for job security. So smart.

Brianna is also uber-organized. She had us look at a menu the night before and she called in our order for a picnic. After graduation, we headed over to Boston’s Public Gardens and had a lovely picnic overlooking the Swan boats in the middle of town. It was a perfect sunny day. Did she plan that too?! 😉

After the picnic, we took a little siesta at Bri’s apartment in preparation for our next eating adventure. That night, we went to Boston’s North End to eat at a great Italian restaurant, Lucca. Added to the graduation crew was Aunt Amy and Uncle Jeff. We had a table in a quieter room downstairs and had a lot of fun switching seats and talking to each other. The food was excellent, but we couldn’t leave the North End without some cannolis from the Modern Pastry shop and gelato. We found some tables to share all our goodies and departed for the night.

The next day, Grandma Cynthia had to fly home. The rest of us got together for brunch and then a special expedition to Fluevog. If you ever have a chance to go to this specialty shoe shop, don’t miss it. The shoes transport you back to Elton John in the late 1970s but somehow seem appropriate for today.  I think we spent 3 hours there oohing and ahhing over shoes.

After walking around and saying good bye to Aunt Nancy and Grandpa Mitchell, we made our way to the beach near Brianna’s apartment. It was a hot day for mid-May, so Bostonians were out in force. WE still managed to have fun with the dogs on the beach.

Later, more food. We went to a oyster bar and grill and had some fun sharing tapas. Afterwards we went to one of the coolest kind of dart places I’ve ever seen called Flight. They have locations in Europe but only a few in the States. It’s bar/dart club that offers specialty games and electronic scoring. It has an instant replay screen above the dart game itself. One of the games was like a horse race where your horse advanced everytime you hit your number. Or, you could hit someone else’s number and get them to go backwards. It was a real hoot and a must try if you are in the area. We said our good byes and hit the road back to Wompatuck. 

Long Island Redux

The next morning, Sunday, David and I took our time getting going. I took a walk/run and then we hit the road to Long Island. The drive took much longer than we expected. But we made it to the Battle Row Campground (again) by 6:30. We got a chance to see our good friends Melissa and Anthony D’Angelo for dinner and hit the hay.

The next day was a mix of work and doctor’s appointments. More friends met us for dinner and Tuesday was more vet appointments and other sundry work, but that night was the real reason we returned to the NY area.

The Main Event

My sister Anne and her husband Stuart were being honored at a gala for the Youth Renewal Fund. Originally scheduled for 2020, the event had been postponed twice due to COVID. We got dressed up, took the LIRR into Manhattan and headed over to the Edison Hotel in the heart of the Theater District. Youth Renewal Fund, a philanthropy of which my sister and BIL are founding members, helps Israeli youth get complete educations. It turns out that a country filled with pretty smart people actually has pretty awful public schools. Anyone with two shekels to rub together sends their kids for auxiliary education at an afterschool-school. So what do poorer families do? That’s where YRF steps in, offering additional education to kids without the means to get supplemental education on their own.

Anyway, it was a beautiful night. Stuart and Anne gave great speeches and many family members where there to celebrate with them. (Some of them even read this blog!) Anne and Stu deserve all the accolades for their hard work and dedication to YRF for over 30 years.

Pointy Elbows?

We had to leave a little early that night because the next day was David’s procedure. Right now you are saying, Wait, WHAAT?!! He’s had shooting pains in his hand for months and we finally got some corroborated advice from two different doctors that we trust. They both said he had nerve impingement in both his elbow and his neck, but that if they tried to open up the space to the nerve in his elbow first, it may not be necessary to do any surgery on his neck. While he hates the idea of anesthesia, his pain is significant and he scheduled the 15-minute operation for Wednesday. We’ll know in a few weeks after the procedure if it worked.

We arrived at 6:30am and was ready to go home in a couple of hours. He was groggy but returned to me around 9am. While we originally hoped to drive to NC, that proved to be a stupid idea. I would do the driving, but David was nauseous just from our short ride to the campground. And then there was the problem of the follow-up appointment. A day before the operation, the doctor’s office told us he needed to return the following week. Why didn’t they mention this before? Because most patients don’t live half a dozen+ states away.

We changed plans. We decided to go east and spend some time with my in-laws in Sag Harbor. On Thursday, after a morning of rain and armed with ice and Advil, we headed to the other end of Long Island. David slept off some more of the sedation and I drove the 90-minute trip on the third world country roads filled with potholes, uneven pavement and breaks that are this part of New York. As a former resident, I know the high taxes you pay. Long Islanders should demand decent infrastructure. And don’t get me started on what’s happening with the aquifer. 

Sag Harbor

Nancy and Mitchell are the family everyone wishes they had.  We were lucky enough to meet before we were even married. I’m not going to go into the long long story of how we are extended family. Just suffice it to say the Berkens are our family and we love them dearly.  When the offer to spend time with them is available, we consider it a blessing. They are generous with their home and hospitality. We are lucky to know them.

Friday was a lot of laundry and work. My sister Anne and BIL Stuart had a wedding this weekend in East Hampton so we invited them to stop by on their way out Friday night. Nancy and Mitchell had friends over for dinner so they joined us when they finally navigated the ridiculous weekend traffic. We met them again on Saturday morning in East Hampton for coffee at Carissa’s. We weren’t going to have the baked goods but who can refrain from kumquat sesame danish, pistachio chocolate croissants, asiago chili pinwheels, etc. Had to try.

Anne and I took a long walk among the East Hampton mansions south of Route 27. We stopped at the beach and walked by the Maidstone Club. I think this historic golf club still does not accept Jews, so we stuck our tongues out as we walked by. I would have done more but decorum prevailed. And we were on a public road. 

We walked by the special garden at the Historic Society and saw they were planting. I knew that a local affiliate of my national garden club (Garden Club of America) took care of some gardens here so we stopped. After some brief introductions, it turned out the people at the East Hampton Garden Club knew many of the people from my Three Harbors GC. It was great to see the work they were doing. One garden was all medicinal plants, another was vegetables, another was flowers, another was natives. I was itching to get my hands in the dirt, but we are trying to get in mileage so off we went.

Anne and I passed the historic cemetery practically in the center of town. I love to look at old gravestones and imagine the lives led by these early Americans and more recent members of their family. It’s so cool to see how the families intersected.

The Maidstone Club may not accept Jews, but they’ll gladly take our money at the hotel. Anne and Stu stayed there for the weekend and I got a quick peek at some of the rooms when we stopped for a bathroom break. I think the rooms are small but nice for an old building, but Anne is right in they may have seen better days.  Then it was off to Blue Mercury for cosmetic items Anne needed for the evening wedding, a quick lunch, back to Sag Harbor to say hi to Nancy and Mitchell one last time, and they were off.  

Training Walks

Sunday saw me trying to get more miles on my feet before the Susan G. Komen 3Day Walk in Boston. I’ve walked in this event in San Diego many times (60 miles in 3 days!) to fundraise for breast cancer research and I schedule my trainings around the November walk. This year, however, I am walking in Boston and that 3Day is in August so I have to up my miles now.  

I know so many people touched by this dread disease. This foundation has funded more research than any other group, with the exception of the US government. And they support people going through treatment, with everything from mammograms for people who can’t afford it to financial support and special testing. If you want to support me, (selfless plug!) here’s my fundraising page.

http://www.the3day.org/goto/Helen_Weinstein

I walked a 7-mile loop on Sunday, stopping in Sag Harbor for a cup of coffee with my honey. A few more miles that day might have been a good idea, but I never got around to it. We had a great rest of the day with Nancy and Mitchell.  The weather has been hotter than normal. Such a change. I found my shorts and then the weather cooled!

Monday afternoon, David’s sister Amy and BIL Jeffrey came out to visit. Although we just saw them in Boston, it seemed too long. David works with Amy and they spend all day on the phone with each other, but it’s so great to see them work together. They’re very supportive of each other and it’s a partnership like no other. Their parents would be so proud. Jeffrey just went through back surgery on Thursday so I never expected him to come, but he’s doing REMARKABLY well.  He’s up and walking and feeling much better already. I know he’s really stoic, and the recovery will be long as his disc issues created a lot of muscle weakness. I’m impressed that he has any mobility at all right now. We went with Nancy and Mitchell to one of their favorite restaurants in Sag Harbor, Doppio which was pretty good Italian. 

Tuesday, Amy woke up early and went on a walk. We got together later and had coffee at Sagtown Coffee in Sag Harbor and walked around the town, visiting the fabulous 5 & 10, looking in shop windows and stopping in other stores that were open.  We got back and everyone did some work. I had to complete my column for my alumni magazine the Colgate Magazine. I update the class on what people are doing: interesting careers, industry accolades, if they have kids, pet shenanigans, Reunion details, etc.  I thought it would take me an hour to complete.  Three hours later…  It’s the editing that really takes the most time.  People give me info and sometimes I can just lift it but to make it cohesive, I often have a lot of editing to complete.  When I finally removed my hands from the keyboard and stumbled out of the Airstream, I went for a long-delayed bike ride with my SIL Amy.  Cross training is encouraged for 3Day Walkers and we peddled a gentle 10 miles together. We got ourselves together and went to a farewell dinner with Amy and Jeff at the Bell&Anchor in Noyac. Great food and Oenophile Jeff loved their wine list. Amy and Jeff stayed over one more night, but Wednesday would be their last day.  Amy and David did a bunch of work in the morning. We managed to get in one last walk along the beach, had a bite to eat and said good bye.Well that’s all for now.  More to come in the near future?  At least I hope it won’t be 2 weeks between before the next post!