New England shuffle

We’ve had an interesting few weeks in northern New England. I went up to New Hampshire in mid-July to walk in the Whites, and stayed with H, A, and sweet B in Concord for a few days, then returned for our good times in Burlington before returning home, I thought, for a week.

But that Friday night H, who had been doing a rotation in the Emergency Room, returned home late in the evening, only to return by midnight...as a patient. She had suddenly begun to suffer excruciating abdominal pain, which one of her colleagues quickly diagnosed in technical doctor talk as “a great honking gallstone.” She underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy on Saturday, during which her gall bladder was removed through her belly button using multiple small incisions and a camera. But the GI people discovered more stones, and on the Sunday she had ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography) to remove at least one stone remaining in her biliary duct. I headed north to ferry the baby around as needed, and to be with H as she recovered. Which she did, quickly and smoothly—she was back at work this past Monday. The side benefit of all this pain and treatment was that I had more of a chance to hang out and chat with her than I’d had in ages. I’d like to find a way short of a medical emergency to allow that to happen.

Late last week, dear friends became a grandparents when their eldest daughter gave birth to a beautiful and healthy little girl, while dear friends of a younger generation welcomed an equally beautiful and healthy son. Much joy all around.

And last Saturday was sweet B’s second birthday. A splendid time was had by all. Singing, funny hats,  Elmo cake, blowing out candles, gifts, friends, and all sorts of gaieté de coeur.

B loves fire trucks and garbage trucks (big, complex, and noisy), but she’s utterly fixated on backhoes. This is our current video fave.




As befits a future heavy-equipment operator, she’s doing very well on her colors, letters, and numbers—though she’s still skipping directly from five to eight on her way to 10. Her manners are coming along nicely, too. She often (not usually, mind you) says, “peetz” on her own when she asks for something. We occasionally get a unsolicited “tenkoo,” too, and I’ve been fooling around in a call-and-response sort of way that she seems to enjoy to elicit a jolly “youekun.”

Now actually at home, I’ve been scrambling to get my phone system’s answering machine/service to function properly. The cable people who now supply service claim the problem is with the phones themselves. The phone people...well, you know.  I’ve run out of ideas and have begun thinking seriously about getting rid of the land line altogether.

Finally, I’m looking forward to welcoming the Concordites to Woodbury for the upcoming weekend. A is running another triathlon up the road (too soon after surgery for H), old friends far too infrequently seen are coming for dinner Saturday evening, and more old friends will help consume mimosas and brunch Sunday.

Next week? Perhaps a couple of 4,000s. Watch this space.

Tenkoo for reading.