Roland,
I hope your Mom was surrounded by love and family during this time. May she find peace and fullfillment.
Treasure the memories in your heart. Happy Thoughts.....

Hey all. Mom passed away this morning around 7am. Its a blessing as her lungs were filling with fluid and Hospice had her on morphine, not a nice way to exist. No big funeral, small memorial @ Congo Church in Cheshire, CT. Garry and I will do the honours later with her ashes as she didn't believe in wasting all those $$ on such.. I'm ok will all now as Lords let me have it gradually in that last year and thank all of you for listening to my off the wall excerpts. New chapter begins. Gos Bless ya'll R

I'm glad you still have that dream Richard and I trust you will keep that end goal in mind.. Things in our lives certainly do change and I've heard myself say before "My life got in my way". Sometimes that's a good things, sometimes, not so much.

well pat there is always the difference between the dream and reality of life. give it a few years and you will be right about me and wood. the luv shak has been a blogger topic of mine and that is definitely a wood project. it has previously only been a hobby and is only now moving toward reality. more to come on that. it has been my sanity and i can see plenty of room for confusion.

Well I am truly confused now Richard. Why do I think (thought) you worked with wood?? I remember going to the Smithsonian to see a chair you told us about.

Patti, right now I'm feeling that I'd rather postpone the Vermont trip to another time, not October. There's a chance I might go to Israel in November or December cuz my poetry book should be ready by then and I'd like to be there when it's finished (the publisher is still working on the book, but it won't be that much longer). They could mail them to me, but I guess it's a good excuse to go again. If I do go, I think I'd rather wait on the Vermont trip. If you guys get together in October, could you do it again at a later date? And, Karen, are you still planning to come out here in October? Avi's uncle (my favorite one) is coming for a visit from Oct. 24-Nov. 13. If I do decide to go to Vermont, it would probably be the weekend of Oct. 19. Anyway, I'll let you know if I have a change of heart and do decide to come.

Richard, you should be a travel writer. You definitely know how to make us want to go to the places you describe.

pat, i work in telecommunications on the radio base station end of what your cell phone connects to. the company that i work for is global. essex, vt is their north american home. i have responsibility for a group of engineers that work closely with no. amer. opportunities. for example, i will go next week to massachusetts to look at a new antenna design that mit is working on and i will go the week after to philly to see the folks that make 911 work on cell phones. i will present in dallas to a global consortium on semiconductor testing in early november and will probably break to the left coast from there. my fam spent one month with me in switz and in italy a while back but now both boys are at college and my wife probably would not travel with me if her boyfriend could not come along, too. you are right, that i am lucky. i am willing to look past the inconveniences of travel and knowing where i might be next week. i have to pull this philly trip out of my ass. still haven't quite figured that out, but their last contract with us was HUGE (about $30 million) so what choice do i have?

Wow, Richard what a wonderful experience. If you don't mind my asking, just what you do for business, I"m awfully curious if it's still working with furniture making? Does your family ever travel with you? These are such tremendous opportunities to see the world. In that sense, you're a very lucky fella.

Any word on fall travel Lori and Karen?

switz was really nice. there were delays to get to and from there, but that is just the unfortunate thing about travel these days. i got to zurich nine hours late and missed a good afternoon in the mountains because of that. still i had some days high in the alps with beautiful views and nice temps. there was about four inches of snow a week ago that added real beauty to the otherwise gray rocks. one of the best moments for me was to stand at a small church above the last village as you travel up the valley and take in the panoramic breathtaking view. the church is hundreds of years old and yet it sits there sparkling like a drop of dew that just arrived that morning. i traveled back from the alps to the home office with a woman my age that plays in a country and western band. i brought her the new bon jovi cd (yup, you guessed it- it is c&w) and we listened to that as we drove. work was good with nice dinners and then i headed to the alsace region of france with a great friend. we stopped in basil to go to a museum there- good museum architecture and nice collections. then we headed to strasbourg which is quite wonderful. there is a large old town, a fantastic cathedral, and lunch at a cafe was super. i spent saturday night in the vorges area (mountains and countryside) with a french family. they have two young boys that are way cute. we played with an air powered rocket that i had helped their dad select a while ago. we all went to chateau du koenigsberg- a very large castle. it is number three for most visited place in france. the weather was perfect. lunch was in bergheim, which is a little town where a couple of days with your lover would seal your connection forever. lunch was french again, meaning that you can know when it starts but you can never know when it will end. we walked around the town and then drove into the black forest of germany. all these places are close to each other. i caught late afternoon sun beside a lake and then headed back to eastern switzerland. my time after that was wrapping up my business and saying good-bye to friends. i know i am lucky to have the chance to do all these things with really excellent people. that was the best. i am ready to be home and have been liking that, too. peace, richard

Karen, one can only hope that a storm with your name doesn't pick up speed and lash out with destruction! It might just whirl around being busy bringing a little needed relief to those around her! Guess we'll just have to wait and see!!! Happy Thoughts...............

Hi from Springfield. Happy Autumn! Nothing overly exciting happening here...no yodeling, no evacuations, no organizing, no new equipment. The weather was so beautiful this weekend. High 70s with just a little breeze and lots of sunshine. The leaves are beginning to turn colors, which is beautiful but one always knows what comes next. Chester had their big craft fair this weekend . It was fun to look around at. I always go early on Saturday morning. Caught up on the yard work in the afternoon and some today. Those little darling children at school are coming in with snotty noses and sharing those lovely germs with me..hard for those parents to keep them home now that they have discovered "freedom"! I wish you all a better week! Happy Thoughts...........