Haiti / Tijuana

This is a summary of what we have learned so far from our son, Peter, who is the Deputy Regional Security Officer at the American Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

When the earthquake struck, he was in his house which is two blocks up the hill from the Montana Hotel which has been featured on the news because of the rescue of several people from its collapse. He wisely ran outside in only shorts and sandals, but then went back in to get some shoes. Three other houses around his had collapsed or fallen over the cliff. This is a better area where diplomats and more well-to-do people live. A doctor lived in the house next to his. Pete has a private swimming pool behind his house, but they are all situated on a cliff. He saw that a house two doors away from him had collapsed and he knew some embassy employees lived there, six people in all. He spent six hours helping to dig them out of the debris. Five survived. He also came upon a woman trapped in rubble. A military person who was there said that it was too dangerous to try to rescue her because the whole area was in danger of collapse and he left. Pete and a Haitian guard decided to try anyway and they were able to free her. Somehow he managed to get to the embassy and eventually get a text message to Roxana that he was ok. This was followed by email messages and finally phone calls when he was able to talk to the boys also.

He went back to where his house is remarkably still standing. He didn't go in because he felt it was unsafe. He has been going out on various missions and has had little sleep and what he has had has been on the chair in his office. He is eating military rations. His boss said that he doesn't know how long they can keep this up with so little sleep. Many Americans are now camped out at the embassy (Peter estimates about 600 people), which doesn't have any facilities for so many people. There are only three bathrooms.

On a positive note, Pete got a call from the State Department that his next assignment would be Tijuana, Mexico. That was one of the places on his request list. Not his top choice, but not the worst either. The boys will go to school in San Diego, right over the border. He will have to go to Washington for up to six months of language training and they will have to decide whether Roxana will stay in Florida so that the boys can stay in the same school, or uproot them to three different schools for the transition period. Ten year old Anthony would rather go to three schools so that they can all be together. He has been rather afraid for his father, although he doesn't show much emotion. He has been watching all of this tragedy unfold on TV and has confessed to having some nightmares.

The State Department asked if there was anything they could do for him now and Peter said, "Yes, send me to Barbados." That was another place on his list. I guess they didn't want to do that.

Pete told Roxana that he will try to call us today or tomorrow. We are very proud of what he is doing, but are still concerned for his safety. We ask for everyone's prayers for him and for this unbelievable tragedy in Haiti. I will post updates as more information becomes available.

Books

I was looking for a book this afternoon. It is Dean Ornish's Program fro Reversing Heart Disease. I wasn't looking for it in the book store or online. I was looking for it in the many shelves, nooks and crannies in our own house, because I knew it was somewhere. I eventually found it and I also found, or, should I say re-found books on many subjects. To name a few: law, sailing, kayaking, canoeing, walking, camping, navigation, fly fishing, surf fishing, fresh water fishing, photography, water color painting, oil painting, travel, health, cooking, herbs, gardening, fitness, exercising, weight training, literature of all kinds, music theory, piano books, banjo books, mandolin books, song books, scuba diving, biographies, field guides on various subjects, woodworking, model trains, dollhouses, books on learning Spanish, French, German, Italian, Arabic and Turkish and the list goes on. Yes, I have looked at most of them and read quite a few of them. No I can't speak any language very well, including English, but I can speak a word or two in all of them. No I can't identify all the herbs, plants, flowers and bugs described in the field guides, but I'm pretty sure I can point out a field if one presents itself.

I did scuba diving and sailing for a while and fishing, still do kayaking and canoeing and still play the banjo, but I'm hardly the expert in any of these pursuits that having all of these books would imply. Anne tells me that I should stop buying books and go to the library, but I noticed that a fair number of books were on subjects of unique interest to her. I'm not buying many books any more and I have resolved that I ought to read or re-read the ones that I have. After all, I've forgotten most of what I read anyway, so they will be like entirely new books to me. I guess I should settle down with a dram of Scotch and start reading.

It's Complicated or Why are all these People here?

Tuesday night is movie night for us, free movie night, because we have the Optimum Triple Play. We discovered that since I'm now retired, we can go to the late afternoon show instead of the evening. Today we went to the 4:15 show of It's Complicated starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. It seems like anything that Meryl Streep is in is good and this was no exception. It was funny; even I laughed and when was the last time I laughed in a movie. But, why were all those people at the theater at 4:15 on a Tuesday afternoon? There were no kids because it was an "R" rated movie. There were a fair share of geezers, but also a lot of other people that are still working age or should have been home taking care of kids. The theater was packed. We got there a little before 4:00 and the 7:00p.m. show was already sold out. It was a good movie. The actors were real people, not computer generated, there was no nudity (darn), no violence and no foul language. The theme, however, was adultery, which is probably why it had the "R" rating. Go see it and have a few laughs.

New Year's Weekend 2010 / Annie

This was a busy weekend. On Friday, Chris, Adrian, Katie Rose & Stephen, Teddy, Patti, Bridget & Timmy, Leo, Kristen & Tyler came to our house to celebrate the new year. It was nice to have three out of four families together. On Saturday we all traveled to Chip & Shannon Maruca's house in Hainesport to celebrate our annual New Year's gathering with Rocky Maruca, Betty & Ray Wheeler, Maria (Maruca) Brown, Tracy (Maruca) and John Schoene and loads of grandkids and even more food. Rocky & Jackie, Betty & Ray and Anne & I started this tradition in 1976 and have continued it ever since. It was a real nice time and I know Jackie was there in spirit also.

Sunday, today, Anne & I went to the Forum Theater in Metuchen to watch the musical Annie, in which Katie Rose had several parts. The cast was mostly children, but there were a number of professional actors and actresses as well. It was very well done and a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. It is always amazing to me how much talent ordinary people have, both kids and adults. I wish I had some of it, because it looks like a lot of fun.

Thinking of Kayaking

I was cleaning out some old magazines and came across my next to the last issue of Canoe & Kayak magazine, so naturally I started to think that it would be nice to go kayaking again. Not right now, though. I think I can wait until the weather is a little better. Last summer we were planning to run the Delaware from Milford to Dingman's Ferry. It usually takes about three hours, but on the day we had picked, the river was running very high and fast. We decided it wasn't a good idea. A ranger told us that if we tried it then we would do it in about an hour, if we didn't turn over before we got there.

I want to do some fishing this year too, being retired and all. The big craze now is kayak fishing which gives you the maneuverability of the kayak, yada, yada, yada. People buy a sit-on-top kayak with rod holders and built in bait wells, attach an electric motor (with heavy deep cycle battery), add a fish finder (with battery), tackle boxes, poles and something to keep the catch in until you might as well just stick with a canoe or aluminum boat. I want to keep my recreational pursuits as simple as possible and as inexpensive as possible. We do have two kayaks (three if you count the Folbot) and a canoe, so I don't really need another boat. The canoe is fine for fishing and what's wrong with using the sit inside kayak. For all the fish I'm likely to catch, I don't think I need to go crazy.

So, anyway, I was thinking of kayaking all by itself, which is an enjoyable pastime without cluttering it up with extra equipment. I'm not talking about boofing or playboating, just gentle lake or river kayaking. I would like to expand the list of places where we kayak, but you have to consider where and when green flies and black flies and mosquitos will be out looking for you. Green flies are the worst. I guess I will just lather up with deet, sun screen, put on a cockpit cover and paddle off into the sunrise. That's what I was thinking about on this last day of the year, now maybe I'll think about something else. Let's see, what other magazines are there. Here's one about extreme snow skiing. Ugh!

Pictures on the Wall II

So we arranged and rearranged the pictures on the wall and finally decided that it was good enough for now. If we want to change it at some future time, that will be all right, I think. I filled in the old nail holes and when the spackle dries, I can sand them put some paint on.

We seem to have a large number of pictures, etc., classified as wall hangings. The trouble is, in our house, there isn't a lot of space to hang things on walls because of the large and plentiful windows and the number of doors. Sometimes we switch the pictures, but if they aren't the same size, it can be a bother.

I think I'm ready for Christmas to end and to put away the decorations. I know, it hasn't even been a week since the holiday, but it seems like it was long ago. I'm ready to start on something new now. I don't know what that is, but I'm ready. Maybe I should just paint the darn wall. I can't do that right now anyway. On Friday, our kids and families are coming here for New Year's Day. On Saturday we are all traveling to Chip's house in Burlington County for a party and on Sunday, we will go to Metuchen for the postponed play, Annie, in which Katie Rose has several parts.

Pictures on the Wall

There is a stairway going to our second floor that has a wall along one side of it. The wall needs repainting. Before we had our new roof installed, moisture must have gotten behind the plaster and blistered some of the paint in one spot. I fixed that and put a primer coat of paint on it and now must gather the courage to do a little more patching of some minor cracks way high up on the wall. The wall is hung with many pictures, some painted by my father, some acquired during various travels, one painted by Anne and one photo contributed by our son, Leo.

At one point, these pictures were arranged in a beautiful symmetrical arrangement, the likes of which has rarely been seen. However, over the past few years, a couple of pictures have taken to fall right off the wall and several new pictures were acquired that needed to be squeezed in. It is sad to say that the arrangement has lost some of it beauty and symmetry. So, in anticipation of painting the aforesaid wall, I wanted to arrange the pictures, once again as a beautiful array and patch the excess picture hanging holes. (Making holes in plaster is not quite as neat as making holes in sheet rock.) The rooms on our second floor all have picture rails going around the perimeter of the room from which pictures are hung by wires from hooks that slide on the rail, thus eliminating the necessity to poke a hole in the plaster. Apparently, these rails were on the first floor at one time but were removed long ago. We tackled this today after I returned from lunch with two associates of my former employer. I can only say that arranging pictures along a stairway while trying to keep the viewing height consistent and the display pleasing with pictures of various sizes is challenging. Some people seem to have a knack for decorating and can make their homes beautiful without effort. I am not one of those people. My creative abilities must lie elsewhere. I only hope that I am able to find where they lie before it is too late to do anything about them. After a couple of hours of resetting painting and pictures in frames, cleaning glass, etc. and trying to arrange the pictures on the wall, we decided to try again another day, which better be tomorrow if we don't want the place to look like a wreck for New Year's Day. I will report further on progress after there is some.