Back In Jamaica

2021 started out in the Ithaca cold, as we had made the hard decision to forego our winter in Jamaica for the first time in 13 years. Covid really sucks! It wasn't all bad though, as we took the opportunity to get the trim done in the pool room that has been missing for about 40 years.

We got vaccinated as soon as possible and with that felt brave enough to fly down to Jamaica for a month in the spring.

In late June Tom had the unfortunate experience of finding out about a tick borne disease he had never heard of - anaplasmosis. Three weeks of feeling worse than bad (and three days in the hospital) and he was back on his feet.

Our long time friends and neighbors Mark and Janet Mara decided to leave the long winters behind and move to New Mexico. Their house sold very quickly and we helped them pack and hit the road. They are now settled in to their new home in Las Cruces.

In August we hit the road in our RV to attend the Pyrotechnics Guild International convention in Fargo, North Dakota. Tom worked on transitioning his job as Competition Coordinator to a new volunteer and we had a great time catching up with our pyro friends.

In mid-September we hit the road again. The first stop was at Tina Spiegel's for Charlies memorial service. Bittersweet with many tales of Charlie and visiting with our many mutual friends. We quietly celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. Barbara remembered that when her grandparents celebrated their 50th they were OLD. So I guess that makes us OLD. 

The next stop on the journey was Nashville where we visited Barbara's sister Sandra and our niece Jill, her husband Bryan and their wonderful son Ben.

Next we headed North to Louisville to visit the City Museum. Part art project, part architecture museum, all fun house. If you're ever in that area be sure to check it out!

Then on up into Wisconsin to visit Barbara's college roommate Pam and her husband George for a few days. 

Next we spent a few days at Dr. Evermor's Art Park to visit with Lady Eleanor and let Tom do some welding. 

We finished up the fall at home and left for Jamaica in early November. It is great to be back! If you are thinking about a winter break our guest room is available!

Happy Holidays and be safe...

Tom and Barbara

 It's been a long time since we posted from Jamaica. But it's been a long time - almost exactly a year - since we have been to Jamaica. Last fall we decided with heavy hearts that going to Jamaica unvaccinated with Covid still raging posed an unacceptable risk and we settled in for our first Ithaca winter in 13 years. Of course the weather decided to welcome us with some of the heaviest snows in years!

With a lot of time on our hands we tackled some long neglected projects at Whimsey Hall North. The front window in the library had extensive wood rot that needed work, and while we were at it we replaced the storm window that was showing its age.

Then as the snow flew we turned a huge pile of rough-cut oak boards into trim for the pool room.

We have never had a doorbell so we dealt with that omission.

To help minimize trips to the grocery store we started having meal kits shipped from Home Chef and Hello Fresh (we recommend both!) and Tom has actually been learning to cook! He even has tried his hand at baking!

We have spent a lot of time cleaning out stuff from our 50 year collection, making many donations to Significant Elements (Historical Ithaca's architectural salvage store) and finding things we didn't know we had. 

We have always had marginal internet service here in rural New York, but in March Tom was able to enroll in the beta test phase of the SpaceX Starlink satellite internet service. We're still waiting on the tree guys to come and take down a few big pines that interfere with the reception(and are threatening our house!), but when the dish has a clear shot at a satellite the speeds are amazing.

Dishy McFlatface

As the winter began to fade we were able to get our Covid vaccines, and decided that we now felt safe enough to finally get back to Jamaica. Better late than never! So tomorrow (April 14) we leave for a one month visit. So maybe we will be able to soon post from Jamaica again!

Oh, and at the last minute we were able to get a crew here and install a window in the end of the quilt room. It will give us much better ventilation in the summer!