I'd never seen Magda's and Joe's condo in Vermont and Thom had never met Desmond so we treated ourselves to a weekend of high wattage D-Kid Energy (DKE) in Quechee. I brought plush toys from Everglades City, two manatees and a gator. I'd forgotten that Magda, in childhood, had adopted a manatee she named Minnie.
Thom brought equestrienne ensembles from Janie and Jack. Can't wait to see Desmond model his new Halloween outfit. No doubt he'll be walking by then and looking as if he just emerged from a very stylish pumpkin patch.
We spent Saturday morning at Billings Farm where Magda had no time for the Jersey cows. Did you know their milk is so high in fat that it's great for making butter?
Desmond enjoyed the colors and textures in the sunflower maze.
Fruit leather snack time. It just doesn't taste as good without bunny ears!
Let me tell you, if Dagny's passenger behavior influences her driving skills, she'll be terrorizing Vermont's twisty roads in a decade.
We spent at a sunny afternoon at the local country club. Membership is required for all residents of Quechee. The D-Girls definitely take full advantage of the swimming and skiing opportunities. Dagny says she prefers the latter. And thanks to videos of them both zooming down the bunny slopes, I now know the difference between two food metaphors instructors use to teach proper form: French fries, good; pizza, bad.
The Ottauquechee River carved the narrow gorge on its way to the Connecticut River, which empties into the Long Island Sound.
Joe identified suitable walking sticks for our two-mile trek.
Family portrait by the pond.
The D-Girls' curiosity about all things natural reminded me of my own in much drier El Paso. Except for Della's grabby obsession with penises, oddly enough!
Not counting Mr. P, Vedder & Moofy, of course. Aside from the first year of the pandemic, I can't remember a Christmas holiday I haven't spent with Tom, Audrey, Magda and Zoltan. Our gathering has more than doubled in size with the addition of Magda's and Joe's family, the D-Kids.
Desi, the newest addition, really got into the spirit of things.
He definitely has upped the testosterone level at 14 Thomas Park.
My visit started off with a small-world coincidence when Chris texted me from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts while I was on the train: "Look who I ran into!" He and Zoltan, whom he hadn't seen since his commissioning ceremony, had both leaned in to read a label about some European battle painting. Peas in a (history) pod.
Tom took me on a driving tour of North Andover, which included the Stevens Estate at Osgood Hill now used for special events.
I brought Audrey an ornament from the Huntington Garden and Library. She and Tom do all their own gardening, landscaping and snow removal. It's a LOT.
Zoltan and I took a late afternoon walk on the Common, past the North Parish Church.
Anne Lillie Howard married a man who participated in the Boston Tea Party. She probably had a life of her own, too, but you'd never know it from the engraving on her memorial.
We celebrated an unusual Thanksgiving in South Boston this year, Desmond's first. He'll be throwing peace signs with the rest of us in no time. Tom and Audrey were on the West Coast for the holiday to cheer Zoltan on during his first marathon.
I took Amtrak from Moynihan Station, a pleasant journey that almost has become routine. You get the best views of Manhattan sitting on the left side of the train going north through Queens, past the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and over Randall's Island.
Brightly sunlit infrastructure and shadows made the on-time arrival in Boston interesting, too.
Magda and Joe had a full agenda planned for Friday. We began at the Museum of Science with a shortened presentation of the Polar Express in 4-D. The chairs shook, ice melted on our faces and the chemical scent of chocolate wafted through the room. But the sweet Christmas message provided the best special effect of all: it left even the adults a little weepy.
Our glasses reminded me of a similar holiday experience in 2009, before Magda married and started her own family. We went to see Avatar on Christmas Day.
You won't find a more pleasant place to spend indoor time with your children than the enormous museum.
A bed of nails didn't phase Dagny.
Every young family needs a portrait with a T-rex! But it raises a question: where's Desi?
Joe, Della and I climbed to the top of Washington Tower, which memorializes the father of our country but looks like a chessboard piece.
Magda, Dagny and Della waited 62 feet below.
It turns out that the hilly cemetery is the perfect place to ride a scooter.
Two days later, on Sunday, fleet-footed Zoltan--aka Boland Kutya or Crazy Dog--finished in the top 10% of all Seattle Marathon runners. His time: 3:21:40, with an average pace of just under 8 minutes per mile. Well done!
I also joined Thom for a week of blue skies, traffic and homelessness in Los Angeles. As much as I enjoyed the trip, if California is America's future, we're in deep trouble.
During all the summer weekends I drove to Jones Beach in Herr Cucaracha with David and Barnet, I never checked out the splendid boardwalk and pool. Swimming in the ocean and cruising the dunes were higher priorities in my youth.
You can't escape pickle ball.
Afterward, Anthony & John hosted Thom and I for another beautifully presented, delicious meal.
In South Boston, Magda & Joe gave birth to their third child and first son. Audrey and Tom are over the moon and the D-Girls couldn't be more delighted with their baby brother.
Can't wait to meet Desmond in person at Thanksgiving.
Florian travelled to Quebec and Ontario. He and Arko celebrated Pride in Montreal.
Call me jaded, but seen one Pride parade, seen 'em all.
But that Arko is one photogenic pooch. He turned six in the spring.
This photo recalls the infamous hot dog soup Florian cooked up the summer we spent together in the Pines. Flashback to come soon.
I took surprisingly few photos in Central Park this summer.
Steven joined me for one of my routine walks. I showed him a new wooden structure erected just below Belvedere Castle.
Groundskeepers are wrapping some tree bark in plastic.
This guy had all the accoutrements of fatherhood but I never once saw him glance at his phone as he lovingly fed his infant son. Now that's what I call being present!
These sunlit leaves got a head start on autumn.
While reading The New Life one morning on Central Park West after my bike ride, a pretty bug landed on me. I soon discovered that you're supposed to stomp on them mercilessly, no easy task for someone who finds Jainism appealing. Spotted lanternflies, a beautiful but invasive species, could decimate California's almond crops if they go west. That's one way to reduce the state's water consumption. Did you know that it takes three gallons of water to produce a single almond?
Here's a unique view of the park from Steven's roof deck. Since he had Randy and me over for drinks, he's retired. At age 52!
Davidson trains his lens on ordinary people as intently as Diane Arbus focused on "freaks," which probably explains why her work is so much more famous (that and her back story, of course). I find his work just as compelling.
Inlaid marble floors and a stunning elevator bank sent me straight to Google after a security guard shooed me away. The Fuller construction company, which built the Flatiron Building at the turn of the 20th century to house their headquarters, moved uptown in 1929. Art dealers clamored for gallery space in the lower six floors before the scene moved to Soho and then Chelsea.
Stunningly detailed bronze reliefs illustrate the buildings trade.
Speaking of construction in New York City, have you visited the new LIRR station beneath Grand Central? It's truly a marvel and contrary testament to the conventional wisdom that big things don't get built here any longer.
Bright mosaics cheer commuters.
Yet even the much-maligned subway continues to surprise. I'd seen these mosaic hats many times in the subway station at 23rd Street and 5th Avenue yet had no idea that they depict haberdashery worn by specific individuals, including Harry Houdini.
If unreconstructed New York is your thing, take a stroll on Lexington Avenue in midtown. The Roger Smith Hotel, where I think my parents may have honeymooned in 1946, is just south of these buildings with vintage signage.
New York walkabouts reveal statues both new and old. When I first passed Carol Feuerman's "Sea Idylls" in the spring, I didn't notice any male swimmers among the nine sculptures on lower Park Avenue.
The Golden Mean, 2012
Force and wisdom face off in front of New York State's Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
It seems like they're about to do so in the next Presidential election, too. Wisdom does not look particularly reassuring.
Randy used to work for Kenn Duncan, the photographer who shot Joe Dallesandro, my first celebrity crush, in his prime. But even $800, the expected minimum for a portfolio of five portraits, seemed like a lot to pay for something so easily reproduced in digital format.
The Met threw me for a loop with its new "virtual line" system. A guard kindly allowed me into "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty" without an advance reservation.
Chanel Ensemble (Autumn/Winter 2016-17)
By the time I went to see "Van Gogh's Cypresses," I knew the drill and spent some of my 115-minute waiting time on the roof which took me right back to Karnak, with an African-American spin.
"the eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture" by Lauren Halsey (2023)
"A Walk at Twilight" (1890)
Although this isn't a representative work, the Pepón Osorio exhibit at the New Museum induced an extraordinary sense of childhood wonder at the symbolic, overstuffed and meticulously re-created Puerto Rican environments he has created over the past three decades.
Retirement gives you plenty of time to fool around with new Apple apps that mysteriously appear on your phone without your consent (remember when U2 got in a lot of trouble for that?). Freeform seems to be competing with Pinterest but it did provide an easy way to let Pines neighbors know when to show up for my 70th birthday celebration at Victor's house. Little did I realize it was a "collaborative" app, not my strongest characteristic.
