The Christmas Tree

Another City Life Adventure

Our annual Christmas Tree cycle was interrupted this year.

Normally we buy the tree a couple weekends before Christmas – this year on the 13th, a beautiful Saturday – and take it down on New Years day, or a little after, put it on the street, naked, and the city comes around and puts it through a chipper (remember Fargo?).

Our trees have trended to the small variety since we got the bookshelves/credenza for the bay windows. Carol calls it a “Charlie Brown” tree. She likes to put it in the window for all the world to see.
Continue reading “The Christmas Tree” →

Eric and Alison’s Cows

Outstanding in Their Field

The day after we arrived for our Thanksgiving vacation, Eric moved the grazing area for the cows, so they were perfectly framed by both the kitchen and bathroom windows. I don’t know if that was his intention, but it doesn’t matter; the cows got fresh grass and we got to watch them eat. That’s a birdbath in the foreground. Over four days, I couldn’t resist taking their picture as the weather changed. Sorry, couldn’t help it.

cows_1 Continue reading “Eric and Alison’s Cows” →

Merry Christmas from Eric

Christmas BaubleI know it’s a little early for holiday cheer, but I wanted the RectorSite faithful to know that I have just re-registered the rectorsite.com domain for another three years. It seems that this experiment in family communication has proved successful in many ways, as it now encompasses over two hundred articles posted, as well as countless hundred images — many of which might have landed in your email box! Instead this web log (the phrase that spawned the word ‘blog’) of family stories serves as an archive of what might have been fleeting messages, as well as a way to collectively announce and discuss many topics of interest to our interesting extended family.

FYI: In case you’ve ever tried to “Google” a RectorSite article, you were probably frustrated because I have checked a setting in this WordPress software that discourages all search engines from indexing the contents. Likewise, you must be a registered and logged-in user to post a comment about an article, and new users must be “approved” by the administrator (me) after registering before they can post comments, or more importantly post articles. The intention is for this to remain “within the family” although I try to be as generous in defining “family” as I can, extending it to in-laws as well as some friends who share an interest in what we talk about.

It has been heartening to see how many of the family members have chosen to contribute articles over the last three years, although my dad Marc wins the Top Scribe award by a long shot. Still, we have excellent posts from our less frequent contributors, and I hope they are able to offer us a few more slices of their life in the future.

It’s also important — especially for those contributors — to note that I have upgraded the software that runs the site to it’s latest “bleeding edge” version, which has significant changes in its structure that will be notices as soon as you log in to the site. Never fear, take a deep breath, and take a little time to scan the new layout. All of the links you need are there, but they may be in a different spot. Please comment to this article with feedback on the new version.

Thanks again for participating in this effort, even if it has just been to read and enjoy.

Happy Holidays to all,

–Eric

EVIL (GOOD) ROOTS

theroots.jpg

The stage was dark, with only a massive drum set on a riser at the back.   Amazing, considering the amount of equipment used by the previous band, Gym Class Heroes.   A single spot glowed on the giant ROOTS tapestry at the rear of the stage.   There was only the dull background noise from the sold out crowd waiting for the headliners to appear.

An incredibly deep base thumping began,not a bass guitar, but resonating on such a low register as to vibrate the brass handrail in front of me in the loge (first row-center, I might add).   What the hell was that?   It played music, but,the glint of a huge horn bell emerged from under the tapestry at the back of the stage, and a shiny silver Sousaphone appeared, playing a signature Roots hip-hop beat.   Quickly following was ?uestLove, climbing immediately into the vortex of his drum set.   The rest of The Roots ensemble followed from behind the tapestry, joining Tuba Gooding, Jr.’s beat:   F Knuckles (percussion), Capt. Kirk (guitar), Kamal (keyboards), Owen (bass), followed by the lead vocalist and one of the originators of the Roots (with ?uestLove) Black Thought.   A very cool way to do a show lead-in, Continue reading “EVIL (GOOD) ROOTS” →

GOT GAS?

In case you haven’t heard, the SE is experiencing a severe gasoline crisis due to hurricane Ike, with stations closed and long lines when one does open with a supply.       

Returning from lunch today, I purposely took the route that passed my favorite BP station, in hopes that they may have had a delivery during the morning.   Sure enough, there was a line in the access lane approaching the station, and an orange-vested guy directing traffic.   I fell into line behind the last car, approximately two blocks from the station.     

After about half a block, I passed our favorite Chinese restaurant, Chin Chin.   Out front there was a handwritten sign out front:

chinchin.jpg

“CALL! CALL! 678-560-5550 CHIN CHIN We will deliver food to your car while you waiting for gas!”         

The restaurant industry is suffering because of the economy; and here in the SE because of the gas shortage.   My friends at Chin Chin addressed both on one hand painted sign,

Olympic Leftovers

olympics1.jpg

Bob Fitzgerald, Warriors TV broadcaster and KNBR talk show host was at the Olympics broadcasting Water Polo. He called in to KNBR from Beijing at 8am for commentary on what’s happening, and gave a “Cultural Tip of the Day.”

China factoids

All of China is in one time zone.

China has 100 cities of over 1,000,000 people

It’s the law: By 2011 every city and town must have at least 2 public ping pong tables and 1 basketball court. Continue reading “Olympic Leftovers” →

Family on the Cheese Road

,and Adventures in Chicago

driving_in.jpg

In mid-June, Eric, cheesemaker at Monroe Cheese Studio, and number one son, emailed to say he was driving the Maine Cheese Guild‘s entries to the American Cheese Festival in Chicago at the end of July. I”m a sucker for a road trip and had nothing pressing on my plate, so I said, “Why not?” The fact that Carol hates road trips and I hadn”t been on one since ought-four made the decision easy.

The cheese was due in Chicago on a Friday, but the conference didn”t begin until the next Thursday, leaving time to drive the great Midwest to Amy and Gary in West Virginia and pop in to see Carol’s family in Lancaster, Ohio.

The flight and drive to Chicago are chronicled in Eats on the Cheese Road. The Festival of Cheese itself — and what a time it was — is described in Cheese Road.

This piece is about family. I hadn”t seen Amy and Gary since our great Georgia to Maine trip in June, 2001. Since then, they moved from Fairmont to Mannington, bought a house and moved in. I was last in Lancaster in ought-six for my high school reunion and then a month later for the Fairfield County Fair and Carol’s reunion. Since then, Carol’s folks moved from their condo to the Primrose Retirement Community. I looked forward to seeing them in their new habitat.

After, we had four days in Chicago where Eric attended the American Cheese Society conference and I had a chance to unpack, chill out and enjoy the great city as a tourist. Continue reading “Family on the Cheese Road” →