Summer Vacation

How great to be able to post about summer plans, even though one set of plans was precipitated by my dad's death.

A big part of our summer (unplanned for!) is cleaning out the house on Rhodes Street. My dad died on May 29th, at 99 years and 4 months (although I’ve been saying 99 ½). The picture below was taken on January 11, 2020, Dad's 98th birthday. We were at Jonathan's in New Hyde Park. Jonathan's was dad's favorite restaurant, and where we had the funeral lunch.

We moved into the house on Rhodes Street in New Hyde Park in 1955 and although we cleaned it out a bit when mom died in 1998 there is still a ton of stuff, including furniture, that nobody wants. My sister Gini, my brother-in-law Bob, Anne, and I have spent five full days working on this over the last six weeks. Two of those days included filling a dumpster with the help of our cousin Jack.

The plan is one more day of work and then we’re hiring someone who specializes in cleaning out houses. Once it’s cleaned out it can be put up for sale. It turns out that Dad had a reverse mortgage on the house, so we need to sell it and settle up.

In addition to that unplanned activity, Anne and I will be spending five days in Shenandoah National Park, a couple of days in North Adams, Massachusetts to visit MassMoCA, and a couple of days in Maine, to visit the Farnsworth Museum. The Maine and Shenandoah trips are “holdovers” from last year.

The big trip is to Iceland at the end of October (of course that’s no longer the summer, but hey, it’s a trip!).

Hope everyone is well. Every day that I wake up healthy I give thanks for the vaccine-life here in Northern Westchester County has almost returned to normal.

Hope all is well with everyone else!

Brunch at Jonathan's, January 11, 2020