Saturday.

Saturday I was invited and happily attended the 40th wedding anniversary wedding anniversary celebration, including the renewal of vows, of friends of mine and my sister. I know many of my sisters friends and she knows mine so it was a wonderful day of meeting some people who I haven't seen in 20 to 30 years including my God child Erica who I last saw in 1986 when my sister and I flew to Maryland to visit Erica and her parents. Erica is now 40 and had just given birth to twin baby girls 11 days before. Her Parents, my friends, weren't there. They have since divorced. Her dad, David, still lives in Maryland  and her mother Karen lives in Virginia. I would love to see them both again as we were all very close. My younger sister Enza went to school with Karen's sister Kathy. We've all know each other for years and the whole group of friends was large, maybe 20. All in all about 60 or 70 people attended. Just a guess. It was held at the Concord Rod and Gun Club in Concord Ma. I may have been through Concord in the past but I have never actually checked out the historic sites. It's about 15 or 20 miles from here. Shame on me for having such places in my back yard and never visiting. I have been to the Lexington Green where the "Shot heard 'round the world" happened. Every year they re-enact the confrontation between the British red coats and the patriots. I have not seen this personally but hope to go in the near future. This is not my picture.

   
Back to the party, because that's what it was and a good time was had by all. Kathy and Dennis have lived in New Hampshire for many years now. Every year they hold a big cookout and invite all their Boston friends up. I went two years ago. They have a good chunk of land up there and Dennis built a log cabin style home over a period of years. As soon as the house was finished they sold their house here and moved north. It's just beautiful with mountains as a backdrop. This year, for whatever reason they turned the cookout in New Hampshire into a celebration of their marriage back in Massachusetts. That certainly saved a bit of driving, though time wise, it wouldn't have taken too much longer to go to New Hampshire because it is almost a straight shot, highway drive north. There are no straight shot highway drives to Concord from here. That can be blamed on the age of the road layout. Most of the roads pre date the automobile. Anyway here are some shots from Saturday.

Left to right, My God child Erica (What a beauty!), Dennis and Kathy. The head in the foreground, unknown.

 I have to say Kathy and Dennis are wonderful, generous and kind people who have made a very good life for themselves.

   

 

Left to right, my other friend Dave, my brother in law Jim, Marie (Dave's ex-wife) and my sister Enza.

 

Left to right, me (I look like I really had to pee), Erica, Enza and  Jim.
 



My sister and Marie dancing up a storm.
 

 
 As always Marie was the life of the party. Marie is one of my dearest friends. I don't see her very much anymore. She has personality plus with a quick wit and a sharp mind and she's a sweetheart. Everybody loves her. After hanging around with her and Dave for 19 years, they divorced in 1989, and Dave had a heart attack as well. It was difficult times for them and for me as well. I was around before their daughters were born and watched them grow.                                                                                                                         
The whole time Saturday was quite enjoyable. Kathy and Dennis are wonderful, down to earth, hard working people. They chose to move out of an urban area to live in a very rural area, New Hampshire. New Hampshire is a beautiful state, for the most part rural. Greater Boston has about 4.5 million people. New Hampshire has about 1.1 million people. The Greater Boston area is roughly a 20 mile radius of the city. There's a lot of people here in a small area. It's a whole different world where they live. They planned, worked hard and are living quite nicely. Dennis is fully retired though he is about four years younger then me. He was obviously much smarter than me with his money. He used to repair furnaces, here, where I live and lived here as well. He repaired my parents furnace twice. Kathy is a no nonsense sweetheart. She to grew up here. Look out if her and Marie get going, they are a riot. I have been fortunate to know such great people in my life.

So that was my Saturday. Sunday was a very relaxed day. Arlene and I went out for dinner and polished off a bottle of red wine in her back yard as her niece and boyfriend played badminton until their dog Chip, would grab the shuttlecock. They would chase him around and he made a game of it. The dog was clearly having fun.

I haven't heard anything new regarding Beth yet. She is in my thoughts. Please send your good wishes her way.

I'm outta here.