Christmas is Coming

Barely finished with Thanksgiving, I find myself getting Christmas Cards and even boxes in the mail. Before I moved on from Thanksgiving, I wanted to share a photo of my Uncle Jim and Aunt Mary. I found one at my parent's house. In the guest bedroom, my mom keeps a display of family photos that I have found in a variety of old boxes in the attic and other places.

My Uncle Jim and Aunt Mary are in the center. James Joseph Dunn Jr. was a Master Sargent in the Army and was stationed in Germany immediately after WWII. He looks so impossibly young in this photo. Of course, I never saw him as a "young man"!

In the week that follows Thanksgiving, I place grave blankets on my Grandparent's grave - It is my way of telling them I am thankful for all the love and blessings they gave me while they were "with us." They have not been forgotten - and with the onset of their favorite time of the year, They are specially remembered.

My mother's father loved Fruitcake from Collin Street Bakery of Texas - and a can of it was ordered for the family to share on Christmas Day.

My dad's mom loved to sign her gifts "From Santa" and spent the entire year before Christmas looking (and listening) for the perfect gift idea. She always found something that made her grandchild jump up and down in glee.

The recent loss of my dad's father is becoming less recent - but the later years on the gravestone remind me that my dad's father's last Christmas with us was no different - my older brother and I shared a few hours with him in his comfortable bedroom on Christmas Day. As confused as he was with many things, he knew it was Christmas - and that "Kid" (as he called his wife) was greatly missed...and especially so on that day.

And now, I will start writing and send my own Christmas Cards.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This Thanksgiving, I went down to the seashore with my parents. I always enjoy the "winter beach" and the lack of crowds during the off-season. We left just before a Nor'easter storm left 4 or 5 inches of snow in my neighborhood and I only saw only some cold wet rain as the snow was gone by the time I returned home.

I did some overdue maintenance work on a garden shed, Superstorm Sandy had blown off some roof shingles and I set about cleaning out the shed and mending the roof. After getting the shed in order, I went down to the beach to listen to the surf. I took a half dozen photos, and I like how the seagull in the foreground might look like he made some footprints.

About a month ago, I was rooting through some old boxes with stuff my Grandfather left behind, and in with the "debris" of a long life (i.e., "trash") I found a family heirloom.

A silver plated carving set. I was immediately transported back 40-45 years in time to a Thanksgiving Dinner at my grandparents, parents, brothers, and my Uncle Jim, Aunt Mary, and their son Paddy. My grandmother had spent the day setting the big table in her dinning room, and now we all sat down to give thanks and to eat a feast fit for kings. My Uncle Jim, in his booming voice filled with laughter, saying, "Well, Harry! Bring on the bird!!"

My grandfather would then bring the huge (usually a 25 pound plus) turkey from the kitchen through the swinging door to the end of the long table. He would then make a few swipes of the carving knife on the sharpener (it really didn't need it, as my grandfather had fully sharpened it an hour or two beforehand) and set about carving white meat for those that wanted white meat and dark meat for those that wanted dark meat, and always gave me and my younger brother a drumstick apiece too.

This Thanksgiving, my parents and I ate a much smaller turkey carved with the carving set my great-grandfather first used in the 1920's. You might notice someone got a drumstick.

We talked about the many delicious meals we shared with my Uncle Jim, Aunt Mary and Paddy, and how much we always enjoyed being with them. It was hard to believe it has been over 30 years now since we last ate with him.

And as fate would have it, hungry for something warm after a cold day spent outside, we ran short of mashed potatoes, which reminded us of the time my grandmother spent hours peeling and boiling potatoes and mashed them by hand only to find the heaping bowl full only went 2/3ds of the way around the table! She was visibly mortified - and no amount of telling her, "there was more than ample food to make up for it," would make her less embarrassed. Through the hub-bub, my cousin Paddy* pipes up, "Boy these mashed potatoes sure are good!" It turns out that he had innocently taken half the bowl, so Aunt Mary rescued some of them and we all had some mashed potatoes after all!

*Cousin Paddy, James J. Dunn the III had Down's Syndrome and was a big, gruff, but wonderfully big-hearted soul. He spent many hours setting up his huge HO train set and tracks so that his cousins (my brothers and I) would be able to play with them when we came to visit him.

The advance of technology is relentless...

Yesterday, I started testing and learning Windows 10.

I know some of you were daunted by moving away from Windows XP. Windows Vista is on Microsoft's hit list now.

Microsoft decided to skip the name "Windows 9" since there apparently is some old code written that checks the version of Windows by seeing if the number starts with "9" (i.e., Windows 95 and Windows 98) and this might cause problems here and there. So they skipped "9" and went directly to "10."

Below is a preview screen. I would characterize Windows 10 as a mash up between Windows 7 and Windows 8. Click the photo to "enbiggen."

I'm both underwhelmed (by Windows 10) and overwhelmed (by the ceaseless change).

The Irish Photos

The photos were taken a few years ago on film - so the colors are a little off - but I've tried to clean them up a bit.

I didn't expect to see as many horses, ponies, and donkeys that I did, but they were everywhere there were animals. Cows and sheep far out number even people in Ireland I think.

The license plate says Michigan. Having the dog sit in your lap or on the donkey during the ride was an "extra charge." Someone paid it. :)

This is a convent - Kylemore Abbey & Victorian Walled Garden. The weather with the looming fog made it gleam.

Another shot of the abbey.

This was a "Gentlemen's Horse Farm, Carrigglas Manor. I remember having lunch there but not much more. I understand it is now a ruin.

This was spotted in Carrigglas Manor. My Grandfather made thousands of these - I don't know if this one was one of his though.

The Cliffs of Moher. Simply breath-taking.

More cliffs rising from the sea.

Given my fear of heights, this is as close to the edge as I got!!

No trip to Ireland is complete without a kiss. They lean you over backwards and slide you out over the abyss on your back and you lean upward to kiss the bottom of the Barney Stone. It's a good 85-90 foot drop there...

Back on the houseboat - on the River Shannon - there are "street signs" out on the river so it is hard to get lost!

Everywhere along the river are workingmen and fishing persons with their helper dogs of course!

A considerable climb up from the water - the conic towers are - forgive the pun, iconic. This is Glendalough Monastery in COunty Wicklow.

To get around the rapids and shallows on the River Shannon - usually between the many lakes, you go through a "canal lock". Here is one near Carrick on Shannon.

Waiting near one of the many locks was this family of Swans. There were to be many such families along the route.

Here I am in the yellow rain jacket bringing the boat out of a lock.

A view down into a lock, they crammed as many boats as they could into the lock when things were busy. All the boats had plenty of inflated "boat bumpers" on them. A canal further north was "self serve" and far less busy.

A self serve lock. One inserted a "fare card" into the board and the gates would swing shut and the lock fill or empty depending on which way you were going.

The many cows along the river and streams like to stand out in the water and let the houseboat wake wash over their knees - they were totally un-phased by boat wake.

The monastery of Clonmacnoise (Cluain Mhic Nóis in Irish, meaning "Meadow of the Sons of Nós") is situated in County Offaly, Ireland on the River Shannon south of Athlone.

Clonmacnoise was founded in 546 by St. Ciarán, a young man from Rathcroghan, County Roscommon. Until the 9th century it had close associations with the kings of Connacht. The strategic location of the monastery helped it become a major center of religion, learning, craftsmanship, and trade by the 9th century and it was the most famous in Ireland, visited by scholars from all over Europe. Yes, you read the dates correctly!

The houseboat is docked on a wharf in the River Shannon just below this hill. Another climb up a hill brings you into the "land that time forgot." This is one spooky place!

Here you can see a houseboat on the river approaching the Clonmacnoise dock.

Another houseboat. We shared several days company and a couple trips to local pubs for sing-a-longs. The lady with the camera was very friendly and from Limerick.

The Bed and Breakfast I stayed at both before and after my house-boating cruise.

Another family of swans closes this entry. :)