Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 14:22:18 -0400
Subject: Weekend Update: September 21-23, 2001

Some time ago, we scheduled a Saturday afternoon to go apple picking;
a happy family tradition.  So Miranda and Jessica (and one boyfriend)
came home on Friday evening to spend the weekend and festivities with us.
They met the younguns at the church for gym night which gave Joy and
I some time alone at home.

Another Fall tradition is the Stacking of the Wood.  We were early this
year.  Last year, our wood wasn't delivered until well after leaf fall.
We had to wear winter clothes and work in the dim light.  Some of the
wood was frozen to the ground until Spring.  Not so this past Saturday.
We loaded, transported, and stacked the wood from the driveway to the
deck off the side of the barn in our T-shirts and shorts. (We have yet 
to bring what was left of last year's wood up from below the deck but
that will be a job for the four of us; not the six or seven of us.

This year's apple picking guests were four generations of the 
Hamlin(-related) family.  Roger, Marilyn, Mark, Joyce (I call Joyce 
"Grammy Hammy"), David, Heather, and little Nicholas.  We also brought
Lauren Mohn with us.  We drove through the covered bridge, past quaint
New England homes and farms to the Pepperell MA - Hollis NH border, 
which is not far at all from where we live.  We were early for some of
the apples this year, too. The Red Delicious apples won't be ready for
another three weeks, according to the farm stand girl.  But the MacIntosh
and Courtland (and a few others) were ready, and Joy makes pie and apple
crisp with those.  In another three weeks, the pie apples may be almost
gone so I am glad we went.

Back at the house, we enjoyed the fruits of our labors and a dinner to
continue our fellowship into the evening hours.  Even as our first guests
were leaving, Coleen and Karyn arrived to pick up Lauren.  I looked at
Mark Hamlin and said, "This is why I love this place."

When all the guests had come and gone, the family settled in around the
television to watch some home movies from 1988.  Andrew was just a few
months old at the time.  We took a trip to Florida in 1988 and part of
it was spent at the home of Joy's grandparents.  We studied the sounds
and images of several people who are no longer alive except in memory
and magnetic tape. I commented that none of those people on our TV screen
existed anymore, referring to how we have changed over the years. (Well,
Joy doesn't seem to have changed all that much.)  Those were indeed the
good ol' days. But we also know that we are still in the good ol' days
here and now.

On Sunday evening after church, I took the family out for pizza so that
we could linger together a little while longer before Mandy, Jess, and 
Dave headed back to Eastern Nazarene College.  We jabbered and laughed
in a nearly deserted Papa Ginos just across the river.

I found out today that one of the Metcalfe girls of the next generation
got engaged this past weekend.  My niece Melissa accepted a ring from
Jason Armstrong, ushering in yet another passage of life for my extended
family.  That's great news because I hear Jason is a solid fellow.  I
am very happy for Russ and Nancy (Melissa' dad and mom), and for Melissa
and Jason!

Mark
-- 
+---_-----------+ Mark Metcalfe, metcalfe@cadence.com
| c a d e n c e | Cadence Design Systems, Inc.    Phone: (978) 446-6451
+---------------+ PCB Systems Division, Technical Communications Manager