An Eventful Week

I hope this blog serves a number of purposes.  It is intended to be a vehicle for friends (and particularly those we left in Virginia) to keep track of what Trudi and I have been up to since our move three months ago.  It is also a convenient way to record in digital form, with some photos,  our new lives, a kind of private journaling made public.  And, it forces me to put words down on “paper” to describe occasional insights that otherwise would probably never see the light of day.  I blush to admit that I am probably the most avid reader of my own blog.  Thank you, dear reader, for whatever attention you give to these irregular postings.

In truth, it is sometimes a challenge in retirement to not slip into neutral, and disengage entirely from the outside world.  For me,  much of what transpires without the instigations of the workplace has to be self-generated.  This is even more the case since we moved to Massachusetts and separated ourselves from the groups and activities that we cultivated in Arlington over the decades.

However, looking back over the last week of North Shore retirement, I’d have to say that the week has been an eventful one.  

It started out at about 4am on Tuesday morning with a torrential predawn downpour accompanied by lightning and hail that rattled the windows till I thought they were sure to shatter.  With sunrise, came the realization that our neighborhood was pretty much cut off from the rest of town by flooded streets and backed up sewers.  The official count was close to 6 inches of rain in two hours, with Swampscott the epicenter of the storm.  Our house was just elevated enough to keep our basement from flooding, but most of the neighbors downhill from us were inundated.   It was the kind of storm about which old timers say “In all my years, I’ve never seen anything like it”.

Wednesday evening Trudi and I attended the first rehearsal of a Marblehead community choir called the Old North Festival Chorus.  The first rehearsal of this non-auditioned chorus of about 60 or so voices under an energetic director brimmed with promise.  It seems like it might be just what we have been searching for in terms of a local, high quality musical experience to participate in.  The upcoming Christmas concert will feature the Rutter Gloria and Pinkham Christmas Cantata as well as other interesting music.

Thursday we went to the Topsfield Fair, about a half hour north of Swampscott.  It is the oldest agricultural fair in the US, dating from 1818.  It was really large, but we agreed that we like the Union and Common Ground fairs in Maine better.  There was something a bit forlorn and low energy about the agricultural exhibits, with more focus on stage performances of second string country singers and amusement rides.  There was a nice collection of quilts and plenty of bunnies, but after a couple of hours and a modest turkey dinner and tasty apple crisp for lunch we were ready to go.

The week also marked  Trudi’s procurement of an iPhone.  She has wanted a smart phone for a long time to replace the ancient cell phone she has had.  It turns out Trudi takes to technology a lot more readily than I do.  She has been using an itouch and an ipad as well, is a big fan of Apple products and was saddened by the passing of Steve Jobs on Thursday.  

We spent Saturday morning on a Audubon Society-sponsored canoe trip on a small stretch of the Ipswich River.  The river was still running very high because of the rains earlier in the week and it felt more like we were paddling through a Louisiana bayou than a New England river.  The fall colors reflected on the water and Trudi’s steady paddling in the bow made it a most pleasant experience.  

Following the canoeing, we visited the site of Trudi’s maternal grandparents’ graves, located in an pretty historic cemetery on the banks of the river in Ipswich.  Trudi is named after this grandmother, Gertrude, known as GG.  

Saturday was also the first of three days of record setting heat, over 80 degrees for the three-day weekend.  The town beaches were crowded with folks taking in this final gift of warmth before the dreaded winter storms arrive.  I swam both Sunday and Monday in the ocean with water temperature a bracing 62 degrees or thereabouts --  just above the point where my hands and feet become numb.  Trudi  joined me on Monday and it was hard to get her out of the water.

 Wrapping up the week, we had dinner at Elsa and Justin’s home and watched in amazement as Adella took her first steps.  Parents and grandparents were jumping up and down with excitement, Adella took things much more calmly.  None of us thought to make an iphone video of this landmark moment, but being there to witness it once again reinforces for me the wisdom of moving up north.