It has been some six weeks moreorless since I made an entry here. A lot has taken place during that period of time. I was at a loss as to when it would be an appropriate time and circumstance to comment on those happenings.

In mid-June, my wife had a routine colonoscopy which found a malignancy which required surgery. Surgery took place on June 30th. There have been a couple of follow up visits with the surgeon, who has assured us all is going well. Earlier today we met with the oncologist, who did not recommend chemotherapy. The cancer was identified as a stage 2; chemotherapy has little to offer by way of improved outcome. The situation needs to be followed closely both in terms of a metastasis of this primary cancer and in terms of being alert to the possibility of another primary. The first is monitored by CT scans every six months; the latter is monitored by annual colonoscopies. Recovering from major surgery takes time. Before performing the surgery, I think the surgeon advised us to be prepared for a three month period of recovery.

During this time, an uncle, with whom I had developed a special relationship, passed away. He suffered a debilitating stroke 20 years ago at age 62. He was cared for at home by his wife, who also worked full time for several of those years. In May of this year, the decision was made to have Uncle enter a hospice program. He passed away approximately two months later. Several years ago, I started writing letters to this uncle a few time a year. He was not able to read them, so his wife would read them to him. Those, which I wrote using the computer, were saved to disk and numbered sequentially. The most recent letter dated June 8th was number 47. There were also hand written letters, which preceded the use of word processing and an occasional hand written one tucked in among those 47. The contents of the letters were not profound, just reports on what I was up to, some of which I am sure were repetitive. I will miss Uncle and our visits via the printed or written word.

What's next for this letter writer?

I'm trying to figure that out. I wrote a letter to my Aunt the evening I returned home from Uncle's funeral. I don't know if that will be the start of a new string.

Almost five years ago, shortly after the birth of our first grandson, I wrote Sam a letter and followed it up with a few more. When his cousin Noah joined the family, I posted him a letter. This past winter when Leo made it three grandsons, I managed another letter. I've toyed with the idea of writing a Grandpa Newsletter on an irregular/regular basis and sending it to the grandsons. Some of my willingness to start this blog may have been to go with contemporary technology and leave the snail mail for an older generation and a former time. But those things just don't seem to fit, so I am back to thinking that individual letters to each of the grandsons may be the fit that feels good to this grandpa. Word processing with the cut and paste tool will provide for some shortcuts.

I haven't implemented this revised plan as yet; recent events have put a damper on my discretionary activities. To say the least, I have been distracted. For the past month, I am not sure I have had a good night's sleep. There have been additional chores to keep the household in order. The summer homeowner project of replacing the windows in the house was completed in late June. We simply weren't in a position to postpone it. There was a side job for a good friend, that had a deadline. I have been rethinking my retirement plans; I was drafting a retirement letter to submit to my employer on July 1st with an effective date of January 1, 2011. I had made it no secret with my supervisor, co-workers, and clients that I planned to retire as of that date. I now have a letter in process stating that I will postpone my retirement for at least one year. I wanted to wait until we had met with the oncologist to learn of his recommendations for follow up care. Being without health insurance or with limited coverage for all or part of 2011 does not seem to be advised. The waiting periods for preexisting conditions and other circumstances make for substantial financial risks. Part of me says "So what?" "Take a chance." Another part says "Act responsibly." I think I would be more willing to take a chance if our retirement reserves had not floundered these past two years. This dilemma may well be the subject of another blog. There is not only insufficient time some days, but also insufficient enthusiasm and energy to do many of the things I feel I want to do or need to do. It seems there are always things to be figured out. Such as: how to be a grandpa, how to be a husband to a wife with a potentially catastrophic illness, and how to be an old man. This figuring, in itself, is hard work. Writing may just be part, an essential part, at least for me, to figuring it out. Go figure!

The last posting was quite brief, because my operating system was installing updates and then restarted my computer to finish the process. Rather than try to save the posting in the edit form or to interrupt the updating process, I simply finish the posting and let the computer have free rein. It appears that I now have sole control of the computer so that I can pick up where the last posting left off and take whatever time I need.

The lawn remains unshorn. There has not been a decent break in the weather for me to tackle the task. I admit there may have been times during the past four days when I wasn't terribly motivated to move on that job. This evening after supper, we had a quick shower followed by President Obama's oval office speech on the gulf coast oil spill. Those circumstances gave me two reasons to wait for another day. George, the local weatherman, had predicted a dry day tomorrow, which should provide an evening appropriate for mowing the lawn.

I spent a few hours this past weekend watching a couple of world cup soccer games: Nigeria vs Argentina and Britain vs. U.S. This happens, when one has friends who are fans, one gets invited along for the game. It is also helpful to have a knowledgeable person perform additional explanatory commentary for the greenhorn.

The replacement windows have arrived. The carpenter is scheduled to be on site Monday to start the job. I have a week of vacation scheduled to be available. One more reason to hope for a break in the weather. This past weekend I pulled off all of the inside trim. I thought I might clean it up and refinish it. Now that it is off, I am not so sure: lots of nail holes, holes from curtain rods and shades, and paint from the failure to tape the woodwork or to cut-in carefully.

This was one of those days and I won't reflect on the rarity of such a day, when the weatherman was right. The forecast called for a 60% chance of rain starting mid-morning. It started mid-morning and continued through the early evening. There is more rain in the forecast for tomorrow. That's okay. The only thing it will stop me from doing is mow the lawn. It's Friday night; the work week is done; the last thing I feel like doing is planning an activity for tomorrow that seems a lot like work. A good night's rest or a dose of obsessive-compulsiveness may have me thinking differently in the morning.

The syrup crew got together this weekend to do the final clean up and make some firewood. Since one of the three--and the youngest--is convalescing from open heart surgery, this weekend was a two man effort.

At the end of the syrup season, we flood the evaporator pans with sap and allow it to sour. It apparently turns slightly acidic which dissolves the scale that accumulates on the pans during the season. It is so much better than trying to scrub the pans with stainless steel compatible pads or to invest in extra strength vinegar, or a chemical wash. Once the pans were empty and off the evaporator, we took a power washer to them and did the final touch-up with pads and hand work. The smaller pan (the syrup pan) was removed a few weeks ago because of a small leak. During the season, we found we had a crack near one of the fittings. It was near the outlet of that pan, which is the place that the syrup is drawn off. As a result there was enough sugar content to caramelize and burn when it came into contact with the frame supporting the pan. The leak essentially sealed itself. The leak redeveloped when the sap soured and dissolved the "patch.". The sugar house is not visited on a daily basis during the off season, so it was several days, maybe a week or more, before the leak was discovered. Yes, there was mess to clean up. As part of the clean up task yesterday, the floor got a good scrubbing. We have made arrangements to have the leak repaired by a welder, so we are not expecting a repeat of this aspect of the 2010 season in 2011. The unit is eight years old, so one had to expect some routing maintenance and repair. At least that is what we tell ourselves.

Today I cut down one of the larger trees (16" diameter) in the sugar bush that had died. There wasn't a single leaf on the tree. Last year, it was only partially leafed out. We marked so we didn't tap it this year. I think this the fourth tree we've lost in the eight years we have been syruping. The wind took the top out of a smaller tree (6 or 8" diameter). Another smaller tree just seemed to up and die. Before we tapped the first year, a tapping size tree was removed, when it didn't leaf out. Other than the wind, I have no explanation for these deaths. That particular tree may have been compromised, since the heart wood at the site of the break was stained blue-green--a fungus?.

I am always anxious, when felling trees of any size. Today's task went very well. No hanging widow makers fell. I was able to drop the tree right where I planned. The new chainsaw, that had been a Christmas present worked like a new saw. I make my cuts, set the wedges, tapped on the wedges a few times, and got out of the way. I suppose I could have used a pushpole like my Dad used to do. I had a pushpole readily available, just in case the wedges failed me. The fifth of six ranks of the woodpile is now complete. The goal is to complete that sixth rank in the next month. I like to have the woodpile complete with six ranks as we head into the fall. With considerable variation based on the success of the individual syrup season, this has proven to be a two years supply of fuel for the evaporator. Wood seasoned for almost two years seemed to make for the hottest fire and an efficient operation.

I split everything that needed to be split with a maul, and, with a tree that size, there is lots of splitting to do. I had forgotten to put the splitting wedges in the truck so there are four rounds, that were set to the side, that need to be split. Splitting proved to be the most physically demanding part of the job. I could feel the efforts of that effort in my shoulders even as we broke for lunch. There are feeling good now, but I expect they may wake me during the night or tomorrow morning they will remind me of the demands I made of them today. Tomorrow is Sunday, the one day each week that, I forgo my morning exercise routine. I think I have earned tomorrow as a day of rest at least for this week.

Th kids should be pleased to hear that I wore the chainsaw chaps and helmet for all the chainsaw work today. The helmet has the best hearing protection, that I have ever used. I seemed to be getting used to the chaps, so no new snags or tears.

We are on the road this weekend--off to the state capitol to celebrate the second birthday of a grandson. The birthday was actually May 1st, so we will be celebrating two weeks late. When the person of the hour is two years old, the adults can probably get away with bending reality. We will have to remember to not discuss this observation in the presence of the child, less a childhood memory be put in place, which will only rear its ugly head ten years into the future and at a terrible price for all involved. Something like--whose convenience were you thinking of?

As it often turns out, my earlier prediction didn't come true. I didn't mow the lawn during the week, so the "no mowing lawn in April" record remains intact. But I can now enter a May 1st mowing date in the books--record or not. With two very modest rains during the week and some windy weather, the yard needed to be tidied up, so I raked that part under the pine trees to gather up the needles and cones that had separated life from limb in recent weeks. From the appearance of both needles and cones, this is clearly a two-step process. Their lives had ceased sometime ago, but only now they have gotten around to separating from the limbs of their birth.

Since the raking effort involved under yesterday's conditions is so much easier than the first raking of the season, I was either inclined to reflect on a potential deeper meaning of the activity or I was simply distracted. As one approaching retirement, I wonder if there is a parallel two-step process for the human species. The message may well be to stay connected, even if one has lost his/her earlier color or his/her seed has already been dispersed. The challenge is to hang on for dear life during the the thunderstorms that pass through from time to time.


The balance of the yard got mowed. It has heavier soil and is less susceptible to drought. It has good color and now a more youthful or, at least, a tidier appearance. One may not always be able to become more youthful, but one can always tidy up.

Every so often I do one of those things that not only remind me how old I am, but convince me that I am getting even older and that getting older involves a price of sorts. Helping a friend reroof his house is my most current example. The lesson came through in spite of the advance planning to do the "old guy stuff" and to serve as a support role with this project. There was a son, a son-in-law, a grandson, and two college friends of the grandson, so there was plenty of youth on the crew.

Yesterday after my day job, I worked until dark and only then did the crew take time for supper. This morning we went back at it and broke for a late lunch, when the rain came. We were fortunate, by that time, the ridge cap was in place; only trimming the gable ends remain.

Last evening, the homeowner and I cleaned up the tear off that the crew had simply dumped on the ground. That task involved lots of bending; I moreorless felt like a quadruped after three hours. Today I did additional clean up, cut the ridge cap, and was an on-call go-for. For old time sake, I did carry one bundle of shingles up the ladder; it was a lot harder than I remember or it is clearly no longer as easy as I remember. I was bushed by the time we finished our 3:00PM lunch, and I had packed up my tools and headed home. I will check back in tomorrow; hopefully the remaining crew members will have the gable ends trimmed. I can take care of whatever clean up remains and pack up my wheelbarrow and two extension ladders.

The weather cooperated nicely. There were a few sprinkles early this morning as a warning. We decided to work through to the end before breaking for lunch, which proved to be in synch with the weather and whoever decides that. The rain is most welcome. We have been in a very dry period for the past four to six weeks. I also washed my truck this past Thursday; that may have helped also. Scheduling a roofing job and washing one's truck within a 72-hour period may be an effective appeal for rain.

When I got home and had packed away the tools from the roofing job, I decided it was time to take the snowblower out of the garage and store it in the shed until this November. I haven't used it for at least six weeks or more, so I think I'm safe with this decision. The snowshovel and the snowscoop are on their hooks beneath the deck, so my back-ups are readily available in case of a late season snowfall. The lawnmower has now moved from the shed to the spot in garage most recently occupied by the snowblower. With this rain, I may be mowing the lawn before the end of the week. I don't keep records on this sort of thing, but I would bet I have never mowed the lawn during the month of April in the 26 plus years, I have lived in this area.

I came home from the job site with a black and blue thumbnail on my right hand and I am right handed. Also, I did not drive a single nail during the two day project. So how does that happen, one might ask, especially for one who spent very little time up on the roof. I was helping the grandson reinstall some fascia and soffet material that had been removed. I was holding the aluminum fascia in place so that it could be nailed. I got nailed. Well, both the fascia and I got nailed. We laughed about it, even though it stung.

Oh yes, one other task remains, that is, to return the extras from the project to the lumberyard for credit. There are 17 bundles of shingles, one bundle of starter strips, one roll of felt, and drip edge to be returned. That task is scheduled for next Saturday.