Projects done - off to New York City & New Jersey

HEWLETT, N. Y., USA - The great water pipe project was completed last week and we loaded up the old Buick and headed south and east for New York and New Jersey.

Taking in a Broadway show? Visiting museums? Peeking at Times Squares?

Nope, better...

We visited with my sister Anne and brother-in-law Bill - and a cast of many - in Hewlett (on Long Island) for two days, then braced for a trip across the city (on a beautiful summer Saturday!) to the beaches of New Jersey to visit brother Tony and sister-in-law Marion and their children and grandchildren.

The trip to the city included a stop in Pine Valley (Very bucolic sounding, isn't it? Pine Valley...) where the Admiral stocked up on country corn for our first stop on Long Island. The corn - when to shuck it, how long to boil it, whether to put butter on it - was the topic of an afternoon's worth of debate and laughing. The Admiral staked her reputation on the seven-minute-rule (boil the corn for seven minutes) and to hold off on shucking the ears until moments before they were to take the plunge.

Her reputation remains intact - the cityfolks loved the corn.


Admiral looks over the Pine Valley produce

The visit was one of those great coincidences because nephew Michael and his wife and son were visiting from Florida. They got there early enough to get some of the good corn and to jump into the photo below of the whole gang. I had started trying to get just my sister and brother in law and their kids - Anne, Michael, Jeanne and Jim - in the photo, but all the little ones all started jumping in.

So here's the result:


Kearney clan, August 2007

At one point, I found myself with a baby in my lap and no idea which of the nieces or nephews it belonged to (She turned out to be the latest foster child belonging to niece Anne who now has four children in her charge). But she was so serene and quiet - compared to the rest of the chaos - that it was a pleasure. In another month, I hope to be holding my latest grandchild (soon to be born in California).


Michael holds the newest baby in the clan

The bad news from the trip is that I caught a head cold somewhere along the line that is so severe that today I am seriously considering using a sinus rinse to knock all of the, well, stuff, out of my sinuses. It's as if someone poured in cement and it expanded.

Yes, I have taken Sudafed and yes, I can type 150 words per minute right now (Woo-hoo!) but the speediness hasn't helped with the damn cold at all... though I have gotten a lot done around the property, even with the malady. Maybe I should cut down a few trees today, rake the beach and then polish the boat...

But then what will I do after lunch?

Sudafed - for when you really need to move fast...

TOMORROW: The beaches of New Jersey and the Fitzgerald clan.