A look at a gathering of my extended family’s male cousins, after-the-jump ...
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My father had four sisters, and so we have a large number of cousins. For several years, my sisters (along with their other female cousins) have had an annual retreat (sometimes winter, sometimes summer). As my sister Margaret writes:
Because we are women we really didn’t need to schedule an activity because the morning would be talking with coffee and the evening would be talking with wine. Somewhere in between would be a shopping day, a lunch out and definitely a few dinners out.
In the past few years, they’ve chided us fellows to get-with-the-program … and my brother Pat volunteered me to arrange one (“Ed will make the trains run on time” was his excuse rationale). In return: as a business traveller, he used points to score a free 2-nite hotel stay … and we shared a room for the first time in decades.
There are eight of us male cousins, with the age range 66-80, most retired. (An additional two have died, and another is now suffering from dementia) but after much discussion we settled upon meeting in Fort Myers, Florida, as two of my cousins have a second home in the region. The other six of us: two came from the NY area, myself from New England, and one each from Pennsylvania, Tennessee and California. Interestingly, at our opening night dinner: a family nearby overheard our conversation, and the father asked to be introduced to all of us.
After that dinner: the next day was taking a boat ride out from Naples (along the Gordon River, and their brochure mentions a brief stop in the Gulf of Mexico). It was 90° (above average for early April) though mercifully there were some cool breezes and the humidity level was less than summertime. There were some dolphins trailing in our wake; just didn’t jump that high for photos.
Price around $63/person
The crew noted all of the mansions along the way — with homes on one side double the price of the other (due to walking to the beach access). And that via a city-sponsored survey: most homeowners in that area spend less than 30 days/year actually living there.
We arrived at the pier at Tin City and had a nice seafood lunch beforehand.
Yours truly second-from-left, my brother Pat third-from-right
Aside from two dinners (that my cousins who live in the area graciously picked-up the tab for us coming down) … we spent most of our time just getting caught-up in each other’s lives. There were also some old stories (OK, a lotta old stories). Tom Dolan (on the left in the photo above, the oldest one of us) had the best ones.
He also let on that two of his three younger brothers … had alcohol problems later in life. One died last year, and Bill is the one with dementia, which seemed to accelerate after his wife died a year earlier. Sometimes, there are family secrets you can only tell in person.
He also regaled us with stories of our beloved grandmother, Catherine (who lived to age ninety-five). Known as “Gibby”, she lived in his house, and Gibby would help him sneak-in the house late-night as a teen (covering for him with his parents). He dated one girl for a time (that his mother did not approve of) and when he came back after a date with her late one night she asked him, “How’s Barbara?” → “Shuush!”
It was a short, mid-week visit (the retirees wanted mid-week hotel and airline rates) and we all were glad we can tell-off our female cousins, finally. We left it open as to a future get-together — it sure beats seeing them only at funerals— and I consider myself fortunate in that all of our family gets along well. Not everybody is in that position.
In the diary by blueoregon about the defamation suit now proceeding against you-know-who by the Exonerated Five (whom he still insists are guilty) — this wall in NYC’s Central Park.
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the front-page story about you-know-who’s obsession about water pressure— first, Mother Mags imagines him complaining when he is in the shower…. and then, Sarkazein reminds us of why he really complained about low-flush toilets before.
And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
