To all who I have hurt, insulted, harmed in any way, by intent or through carelessness in the past year. I apologize.  Please forgive me. I forgive you for any slights or hurts you may have done to me.

The new header image above is our apartment building in Rochester. If you look at the first floor above the grey paint from the left corner to the  middle column that is our apartment (the arched windows are the floor above us). This image will be changed when we start traveling in a couple of weeks so I’ll insert it here as well.

  Living in 1450 square feet feels like we are in a mansion with much more space than we are used to. We love it and love its contents, but will be ready to move on to new adventures when the time comes.

We have been very busy seeing friends, and a few doctors, We are taking in two Rochester Philharmonic concerts a play and we have even been to a film. We saw BlackkKlansman  Spike Lee’s recent film. We highly recommend it. It is tough and the language is as strong as it must be.

The arts scene has been vibrant as Rochester leaves Summer behind heading into Fall and people return from vacation. Someone forgot to tell the weatherman that summer ends here with Labor Day. We have been sweltering in high 80’s and low 90’s. Combine this with high humidity and SoCal at 100 seems almost pleasant. 

It feels like we are flying through time because we are making so many plans for the remaining almost three weeks we are here. We are trying to slow down so we can enjoy our time here. Today I walked to a meeting about 1 mile from the apartment and then stopped by a pharmacy 2 miles beyond that. By the time I returned I had covered over 5 miles and felt fine, just a bit warm. Compared to our hikes in SoCal this wasn’t even a “walk in the park” more of a stroll on the sidewalk, but after so much sitting it felt good to move again.

We move on to Yom Kippur starting Tuesday evening and will be greeting most everyone with the opening paragraph above. Over the years during this time I have attempted reconciliation with people from whom I have become estranged and  restored what seemed like lost friendships. It is a good time to be at peace with oneself.

PS the “Walk in the park” reference is from our 85 year old hiking master who calls every hike no matter how strenuous just a walk in the park.

It is Thursday, September 26. We are in Dan and Malena’s yard in the coach. On Tuesday we will put the coach in storage and be driven to the DC area.  We will stay at a hotel near my cousins Jane and  Bob Levey so we can have dinner with them before flying out on Wednesday evening to Kiev, first stop.  We do not have passports in hand yet. PVS Inc has had them since late July or early August. We need 5 visas for this trip.  Apparently  China, Vietnam and even Myanmar were relatively easy. Russia was swamped and would not even accept the application until  a month before the entry date.  Cambodia would not grant a visa for more than 60 or 90 days in advance of entry.  I spoke to Ruth at PVS today and she assured me that Russia had issued our visas, yesterday, and our passports are at the Cambodia Embassy and should be done by tomorrow.  This is getting tight.

We arrived here a week ago after an uneventful trip with a stop at Shangri-la by the Creek in Milton, PA. We have made that stop often on our trips between Rochester and Charlottesville.  The big event of the week was Dan’s birthday on September 25. I’m not sure how I feel about that as I was 25 when he was born.  We entertained with dinner at new local restaurant, Pasture, it was okay, a bit noisey, and a bit stark.  It cost more than the bris!

On Tuesday the 24th we drove to Fredericksburg where we met Anna Lee and Jerry. We spent a delightful day touring, eating and talking.  I hope we will see them next in California, or someplace on the road.

I suppose I should include a picture so here is a shot looking down the driveway from the steps of GeeWhiz.