Julie July 4th

My sister Julie (taken late 1970s)

Today (July 4th) is the birthday of my sister Julie Francine. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE! She and her family live in Great Britain. Unfortunately, it has been too many years since I last saw her.

Julie was born in the morning in Cleveland in 1969. All of us were born in the same hospital, St. John's. It turned out to be a tumultous day (here is a detailed story about the weather and its aftermath that day).

For the holiday, we gathered at Uncle Dan and Aunt Dorothy's home in Bedford for a family get together. Lots of cousins, bottles of pop, grilled food, etc. Typically, we would have gone to see fireworks at Cleveland's Edgewater Beach but due to the new baby and threatening weather, we stayed in Bedford.

I remember that the weather seemed to deteriorate quickly and we all pile into our Volkswagon van and headed for home in Broadview Heights. The sky was a weird shade of gray-green and there was lots of crying and praying as we drove. When we arrived home, there was a mad rush out of the car and we all went down into the basement for safety against the potential tornado.

Later, we learned that the massive storm had hit Edgewater and several people were killed by falling tree limbs. My mom recalls that the hospital lost power during the storm. With that kind of day, it's difficult to forget a sibling nicknamed Julie July 4th!

Baseball Fireworks

While we are big Cleveland Indians fans, the local baseball team in the Hartford area is a Minnesota Twins AA league team, the New Britain Rock Cats. The past two years we celebrated Independence Day at the Indians ballpark. However, this year, the Tribe was playing in Cincinnati. So the next best thing was a twi-night double header at New Britain with pyrotechnics to follow.

The New Britain Stadium is a nice, minor league ballpark, where every seat is pretty darn good, especially for the money (see chart below). We bought reserved seats in section 204 (see above) but it was too sunny and hot on the first base side at 5 p.m. So after a half inning, I insisted we move to the general admission seats (Section 213) on the third base side (I like these better myself). So we watched the first game from there. It was a slug fest with the home team getting punished 11-3 by the Harrisburg (PA) Senators.

The second game started out promising for the Cats but they nearly duplicated the first game by losing 9 - 3. Fortunately, both games were only 7 innings. Nonetheless, it was pretty late by the time we got to the pyrotechnics. These were more roman candles than fireworks. Still, Richard enjoyed them and there were no big BOOMs.

By the time I dropped Richard back to Lynn and drove back to Stratford, it was after midnight.

Climb Every Mountain

Another highlight from this Saturday (7/2) with Richard was our weekly "hike." We went to Hubbard Park in Meriden, CT to walk up to Castle Craig at the top of the ridge. Lynn and I rode up to this years ago during an AYH bike ride. At that time, I had no idea where I was going and after the ride I wanted to return for another look. 15-20 years later....

My initial plan was to walk/hike to the summit/castle. But we weren't prepared and the weather was sunny and hot. After about 45 minutes of walking along a gorgeous reservoir at the base of the ridge, Richard pragmatically insisted we return to the car and drive up. Reluctantly, I agreed.

When we got to the top, we encountered a couple who had started out the same time as us. They were so glad to see us with the car and eagerly accepted my offer for a ride back. No refreshment stand at the top!
 

Note the girls sitting on the outcrop.

The views were spectacular and a tad frightening if you looked down (see picture above and below).  When we got back to the starting point and dropped off our new friends, they kindly gave us each an ice cold can of soda (Sprite). Refreshing!

Stew Leonard

One of the highlights of my Saturday with Richard this week (i.e., July 2nd), was our visit to Stew Leonard's grocery and dairy store in Newington, CT. This may seem like a strange highlight to some but I quite enjoyed the experience. This is not a regular, typical grocery store. Rather, it is like a huge barn where specialty foods are sold. They seem to focus on fresh items, locally produced (e.g., no cucumbers from South America). Mass produced items seemed to be minimal and limited to a few types of breakfast cereal and chips. They have their own bakery, butcher shop, and flower shop.

The Newington, CT store.

Since it was Saturday, they had lots of free samples. We tried donuts, puffed rice cakes, crab, oatmeal cookie, chicken salad on mini-toast (2 of 3 kinds), several types of cheese, and two types of salad and dressing. The only thing we bought was a bottle of Stewart's Key Lime Soda for Richard to wash down the samples.

I wish there was a store close to me; the nearest one is in Norwalk, CT. I used to take Richard there when he was a toddler to see the animals (chickens, goats, cows)(no animals at the Newington store). I really liked the salad items, and fresh veggies and yummy pastries.

New Books

The Book of Job (in the Bible)

Having finished the Book of Tobit, I have started my bible study of the Book of Job. The bible study group at St. Mark's is planning to do this in the Fall; so I want to get a head start.  I am using the New American Bible (NAB), an old issue of God's Word Today (now out of print), the Jewish Study Bible, and the (free) NET Bible. The NET bible has extensive notes that are a useful supplement. I started to use the Anchor Bible version by Marvin Pope but it proved to be too pedantic (and distractingly difficult for a neophyte like me).

Treasure Island (by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Readers of this blog will be aware of my recently acquired affinity for Treasure Island. The Walt Disney version version awakened my interest. The Victor Fleming movie furthered my curiosity. The terrible Muppets movie version thankfully did not distract me.  While the movies sparked my desire to read the book, unfortunately my local library did not have a good copy. Fortunately, I found a nice version at the West Hartford Library book sale: a Junior Deluxe Editions version (see picture at left).

Instead of buying the Sparks notes or Cliff Notes, I put together my own supplementary material, primarily derived from the Wikipedia entry (see link above). It includes notes from two different editions (very helpful for some of the archaic language and nautical terms), the preface from the biographical edition by RLS's wife, and an essay by RLS on how he wrote the book.

I learned that, like Uncle Tom's Cabin, Treasure Island was originally published in serial form in a children's magazine (see above or here). I don't think someone Richard's age would enjoy reading TI although the story is great. As I mentioned above, the book is filled with rather language, but it is not as hard as Shakespeare and much more thrilling. I'm looking forward to more reading of the works of the Scotsman, RLS.

Hannah + Dave

Or Dave and Hannah (if one speaks in the traditional order). On Saturday July 2nd, my niece, Hannah, married Dave. She is the first of my nieces and nephews to marry. I wish them much grace, endurance, patience and God's blessings during their upcoming adventures as a married couple.

Their marriage mass was conducted in Nebraska, where they went to college. Due to the distance, I was not able to attend. However, my mom drove there with one of my sisters; another sister and her family attended (and of course, so did Hannah's family); and my sister from Chicago and her family.  Hopefully, someone will email me a picture so I can post it here.

A reception in Ohio is planned for the end of this month.