Henry’s funeral obviously dominated the week. The support we received from family and friends has been awesome. All the arrangements worked extremely well. For the last many months, Henry said he wanted to be with his sisters. I’m sure he’s happy to finally be with them again. The last of our house guests went home Saturday morning. Our house chores are caught up. Life is quickly returning to normal.

Today we are making good use of a rainy day. Danita is Henry’s executer. She spent most of today getting herself ready to talk to our lawyer.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We were fortunate to have family with us the day Henry died. JaMM were up for what they thought would be a couple of days of family fun. Ed & Lynne were able to stop by after visiting with Henry. We are truly blessed to have a wonderful family. I put some pictures on the website. Click the link above if you are interested.

Danita’s dad Henry died earlier today. He has been very ill for a number of years. His death was expected. By great good fortune, Mark, Jiajia, Mira, Ed, and Lynne were all at the house. We were able to talk with the rest of the family by phone. We have agreement on the arrangements, but with the holiday, we won’t be able to address the details until Tuesday.

Henry – Faith and Family

Mom’s printer has had lots of issues over the last months. It finally gave up the ghost. We decided a laser printer would have fewer problems. I found a very nice Canon for $100. I could have put the old printer in the trash, but the county recycles electronics if you take them to the landfill. Thinking about it, I realized the landfill is within biking distance. The printer was too big for my panier bags, but I figured out a way to lash it to the frame. It was a fun ride. Bonus highlight: a small detour took me by the best snowball stand in the county. Chocolate raspberry with marshmallow. Yummy. I wonder how many times cyclists deliver recyclables to the land fill.

I use my smart phone for GPS guidance when I ride. It has a map and display as do most GPS units. But there’s no place to mount a GPS on my bike where I can see the display. I found a program that gives audible directions as I ride. It’s a really cool feature. I wear the phone in a pouch around my neck and follow the verbal directions. On the way home from the dump, I came to a turn and realized the GPS wasn’t prompting me. My phone (a Google Pixel 5a) was completely dead. I knew the way home, but obviously I need a working phone. This one was less than a year old. I called Google and was very impressed. They gave me the magic key sequence to restart the phone. Everything was fine. The agent told me that the phone shuts down if it gets too hot. It was a hot day, but we have had hotter. The other possibility was that the phone decided to install the Android 13 update, and it collided with the GPS app, causing it to get terminally confused. The term “smart phone” is a misnomer. It’s used for texting, computing, web surfing, GPSing, gaming … in a pinch, it will even work as a phone.

I updated our community website today. This was a major update. I hate large updates. Something always goes wrong. This time they added new security features. None of the people who post information could see, add, or delete the documents and pictures that are posted on the website. That’s extremely secure. It took me two hours to find the new settings. What a waste of time.

We’re looking forward to company for the holiday. JaMM should arrive this afternoon. It will be fun having an infant in the house. Danita’s cooking up a storm. There just might be pictures next week.

It was a quiet week. We’re looking forward to the ice cream social this evening. Come and get a ice cream sandwich, cone, or similar treat. You have to buy a house in the neighborhood to attend, but other than that, it’s free!

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

When I took Bryon to NY, we visited a cave. I bumped my head and fell on my butt. After we ate lunch, I sat on my sweatshirt as I drove to NY to keep mud off the seat. (We were in a cave, it’s cool.) Unfortunately, some blue die got transferred from the sweatshirt to the driver seat. I tried leather cleaner and mild soap with no success. This week, I took the car to a detailer to see what they could do. I have to say, they did a great job. The car looks new. Except for the driver’s seat. I have the world’s only Honda Accord Hybrid Touring with red paint and white leather upholstery that has a blue streak on the driver’s seat back. It doesn’t affect the car’s performance, but it sure makes it unique. After I brought the car back, I decided I should wash the Leaf. We wouldn’t want the Leaf to feel unloved. I also cleaned the deck and porch. That used to be a one-day job. Now it’s a definite two-day job.

Bud is still having problems adjusting to his new quarters at BrightView. The staff have been excellent. They communicate frequently and clearly. Danita had to sign some permission papers, including one that was eleven pages of dense legalese. The staff were surprised when she had only one question.

This was a week of some misplaced excitement. Danita has been trying to get Bud’s 1099 since February. We saw a document in the mail preview that we were getting something from the Office of Personnel Management. It looked like we were done. Unfortunately, it was only confirmation that our address was corrected. Danita requested the 1099. Again. Her goal is to be able to submit Bud’s 2021 taxes before the 2022 taxes are due.

I don’t remember if I already said this, but we hit the jackpot with Mom’s I-Bonds. The Treasury Direct folks beat their deadline by three weeks. All of Mom’s bonds are online and retitled.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Bud’s old room is cleared out. Almost everything has been relocated, donated, or disposed of. We have one more Goodwill trip. Not surprisingly, Bud has had some trouble adjusting to his new surroundings. Hopefully everything will settle down quickly.

We’ve had a nice break in the weather. I’ve had some nice bike rides. There’s not much else going on. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Danita and I drove up to bring Bryon back, staying overnight in Gibson. Last week after dropping Bryon off, my right knee was quite painful. It hurt to walk for several days. Going up and down stairs was troublesome. I bought a heavy duty knee brace. Driving up it felt like the brace wasn’t doing anything. But when we go to Gibson, my knee was fine. It was also fine Sunday when we got home. It’s one of my better $75 purchases. The brace has earned a permanent home in the Honda’s trunk.

Lines at the airport this morning were insane. The service counter line to get a gate pass was horrendous. Two security check points were closed. Anxiety levels were high. Nevertheless, we made it to the gate 15 minutes before boarding was scheduled to start. As it happened, the flight crew were coming in on another flight that was running late. We ended up cooling our heels for an extra half hour.

We also got Bud moved from Riderwood to BrightView today. His first day there, he joined a group going out to Longhorn steak house for lunch. That’s not a bad way to start things out. Everything Bud needs is in his BrightView room. We’ll join Ed & Lynne tomorrow cleaning out The Riderwood apartment. After tomorrow, things should start getting back to normal.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We had a fun week with the grandkids. Now we’re exhausted. We had a couple of “interesting” experiences this week. We spent a couple of days in the Lancaster area, staying at the Red Caboose Hotel. The second day we decided to go to the Turkey Hill Ice Cream Experience on Linden St. We set the GPS and took off for adventure. It turns out that Linden St. in the Lancaster area is like Voltaire St. in France, or Lincoln Park in Iowa. After half an hour of driving, we found ourselves on the wrong Linden St. The highlight of the Experience is making a pint of your own flavor of ice cream. After that the entire pint of ice cream is promptly consumed. These are timed tickets with every time slot filled to the max. We took off for the correct Linden St. We arrived, walked directly to our ice cream lab, and they closed the door behind us. I don’t generally enjoy standing in lines, but standing in line is a lot less stressful than sliding in at the last second.

Liz took a flight home Saturday morning because her school starts early. Bryon decided he wants to spend a week with Ryn working on the farm. So I drove Bryon up to Gibson, PA where I would meet Ryn and transfer Bryon. To break up the 4-hour ride, we stopped at the Echo Dell Cave. It was a nice tour. Smart phone cameras are absolutely amazing. I got several very good available light pictures just holding the phone. Somehow the electronics takes a long exposure while un-jiggling the picture to compensate for my jiggling hands. As the tour was about to end, I walked into the ceiling. Then I fell on my butt. I remember thinking “I hit my head, why am I going to fall on my butt?” Then I bruised myself and made my pants absolutely filthy from the wet clay floor. The head wound bled. It being a head wound, there was blood everywhere. I made a bee-line for the outdoors with blood all over my face and hands. I went up the 71 steps. The Echo Dell folks sent somebody out to give me a hand. They gave me a roll of paper towels, two ice packs, free passes for a future visit, and a bottle of cold water. The wound didn’t bleed for long. I was able to clean the blood in their wash room. Then we ate our lunch at their picnic table (as planned) while I held ice packs on my head (as not planned). I didn’t have a spare pair of pants, so I washed them out in the hotel as best I could.

Ryn and I had a lot of fun working out an elaborate transfer process for Bryon. It involved encrypted messages, flashing lights, beeping horns, and more. It was so complicated we ended up just using the token I created by tearing a playing card and mailing one half to Ryn.

Danita and I will drive up to Gibson together next weekend. On the way back, we plan to stop at a car museum. Hopefully, that will be safer than a cave.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Bryon and Elizabeth are visiting us this week. We’ve been doing many fun activities. Our biggest surprise was driving from the Baltimore Zoo to Mom’s place at Charlestown. Our GPS took us through some neighborhoods I have never before visited. I actually saw three men sitting on a porch passing around a brown paper bag. Fortunately, we had no mishaps. Here’s a picture of us with Mom, and another with Ed, Lynne, Addi, and Suzanne. Tomorrow we’re driving up to Lancaster. We are staying at the Red Caboose Hotel.