From:	Mark Metcalfe
Sent:	Monday, July 07, 2003 10:43 AM
To:	Mark Metcalfe
Subject:	Weekend Update: June 27 - July 3, 2003
Last Thursday (June 26), Andrew went into Saint Joseph's
hospital for a biopsy of a lump behind his left ear.  The
results took a week to coe in, but we were not too concerned
about it.  Joy went with Andrew and thought that Andrew's 
attending nurse looked and sounded somewhat familiar to her.
When she signed her name to a form, Carolyn C. Scranze,
Joy asked what the C. stood for.  "Cain" she said, "that
was my maiden name." "My husband went to high school with you!"
"Joy? Mark's wife?"  At Melrose High School, I knew this nurse
as Callie Cain, boyfriend of Tom Ledoux; all of us members of
the Band (Callie was a flag twirler).  My father moved the family
to Melrose in the middle of my 11th grade, and these were the
few friends for me of that period.  I had lost contact with
Callie 22 years or so ago; she was in nursing school
in Boston, and I was in college, living on Sachem Street. 
Over the years, I had often wondered about my few high school
friends, and made a few attempts to locate them, but without
success, until last Thursday.

Other than this serendipidy, the focus of the weekend was on
the Magnuson move to Pepperell.  Unfortunately, the let-down
after the wedding found me with a cold; Andrew, too, probably
made a bit worse from the trauma of surgery.  He seemed able 
on Thursday evening, and was eager to help the Magnusons
move.  Friday was one of the more hazy, hot, and humid days of
the year but the truck was rented, the friends were scheduled,
and Friday was moving day.  I took Andrew to the Billerica house
in the morning on my way to work, leaving our van with the seats
removed so that they could pack it with boxes.  I told the boys
to fill the van with boxes like Tetris before I got back after
work.  Linda drove me to Cadence, which is just two miles from
their former home.  When I returned later that afternoon, the
computer equipment was taking up much of the floor space but 
nothing above it; a lot of room was left; boys do not know how
to pack.  What Eric lacked in his help's ability to pack he
made up for with the number of vans and people he had to use.
Besides us, Keith Macfadgen and his boys, Keith's dad Bob, and
the Bickoms helped to load a truck, three vans and two trailers.
On the Pepperell end, Rich Gonzalez and Eric Pape were welcome
fresh muscles to help unpack the vehicles.  When one of the
couches was set up, it was minus one cushion that decided to
jump out of a trailer somewhere in Westford.  Luckily, Bob
retraced his route and found it propped up on a bush.  We were
not done on Friday; the rest of the Billerica house had to be
loaded on the trucks the next morning and transferred to Pepperell.

I told Eric to bring his family over for breakfast in the
morning and then we'd finish the move. Those plans were changed
because Eric spent the night back in the Billerica house.  Joy
headed over to help Linda unpack and clean up, while Andrew
and I met David and Paula, Eric, Andrew and Ryan for Move Part II.
A truck, two vans, and two trailers later, the house was empty.

Back in Pepperell, the neighbors had already stopped in and
delivered lunch for the Mags and the workers.  They had a little
trouble sleeping the night before because things were so quiet.
It is a burden they will get used to very quickly.  Leaving the
Magnusons to get settled on Saturday afternoon, we cooled off in
the pool.  We took Joy's dad to dinner Saturday night; he really
likes the ribs at On the Border.

Miranda was up in Casco, Maine for the weekend with the Young Adult
group from our church.  Don and Elva Reed have always been generous
with their cabin.  Miranda was in charge of the food gathering and
preparation.  Emily was delighted because Mandy said that she could
use her car for the weekend.  Emily cruised to New Ipswich, NH to
pick up Liz Rand to come stay overnight on Saturday.  We relaxed
Sunday by the pool with Liz, Michael, and Keith MacFadgen and his
boys. 

After evening church, we escorted Tom and Pam Quattrocciochi (sp)
to a house for sale in Pepperell.  Pam works in Nashua in the same
hospital in which Callie was rediscovered.  This particular large
house would be about 10 minutes from where she works (although I
think the house was already under contract).  Tom and Pam came
back to the house for a time afterward where I showed them 
wedding photos and we looked up the house on the internet.

Cadence shut down the company in America for the Fourth of July
week to save money.  I think I would have taken this week for
vacation anyway so it did not affect me as it has some of my
colleagues.  It was hot and sunny every day; perfect weather
for what I had in mind to accomplish; a day and a half's work
in over a week.  I spent much of my vacation occasionally pruning
trees and bushes while mostly relaxing around the yard and pool.
I have added significantly to next year's burn pile but I like
the way the trees and bushes are coming along in the yard.  I
sense that Joy gets a bit uptight when I have the pruning tools
in hand so we seem to find the time to prune when she is not 
around.  That way, the outcome is usually okay and she needn't
get concerned over the cuts I make.  On occasion, however, as
in the case of the grape vines this past winter, she indicates
to me how I might have done better with more branches and less
pruning.

On Monday morning, we quickly picked up the house for our next
guests, the Shaws (long-time friends).  They were coming to stay
at the Manor before heading farther north for a few days of
camping in the White Mountains.  They said that they enjoyed
feeling comfortable enough to bum around.  I said, "that's
because we're bums, too."  I tried my best to get them to extend
their visit with us, but they'd already reserved some camp space
up north and could only stay with us until Wednesday morning.

My father-in-law left on Tuesday morning, just a couple of days
shy of three weeks.  It left us short one bedroom for one evening,
so we had to put two of the Shaw girls in the loft on the barn on
an air mattress. I wasn't too concerned since the barn is the only
place in the house that is air conditioned; I doubt they minded
too much.

I also put both of my cars into the repair shop for scheduled
maintenance.  I hope this works because it makes more sense to
me to take cars into the shop when they are broken than when
they are not.  The AC in the van hadn't worked in a few years
and I've been too cheap to fix it until now.  The condenser is
nearly gone and they would not guarantee how long the old one
would hold the freon charge.  If it goes, we already know what
it is like to do without and will likely do so, but until it
does give out, we'll enjoy its comforts.

Emily has a summer job; part-time picking strawberries.  I don't
know how long the fruit will last but she'll be able to add
Migrant Farm Worker to her resume.  Speaking of resumes, I helped
Miranda update her resume and cover letter for her to get cracking.
She has a number of leads so I am not terribly concerned about her
finding a new teaching job in the Fall if she puts in the effort.

We took Andrew back to the hospital last Thursday (7/3) to remove
his stitches and get the results of his biopsy.  Everything was
normal; the lump was merely a chronic infection.  Andrew insisted
on telling his sisters that the trouble was maggots to gross them
out.  Joy, Andrew, and I celebrated the hospital being near a 7-11
with Coke Slurpees.  The rest of the day was whiled away in
anticipation of the annual Metcalfe Fourth of July gathering.

Mark