Subject: Weekend Update: "There and Back Again"  Feb. 6-7 99
Date:    Mon 2/8/99  9:33am

When I get home in the afternoons, before the sun goes down, I've
taken my nippers and headed out back to prune the apple trees and the
grape vines.  I'm done now and somehow feel that I've cut too much of the
apples and left too much of the grapes.  However, I am sure they'll
both be fine as long as I keep the pruning up during the Spring and
Summer (where I went wrong last year).  The apple branches are headed
for a fire pile but Joy will re-use the grape vines by making some
wreaths out of them.

On Saturday morning, we arose early to head down to northeastern
Pennsylvania to see Joy's sister and husband and their new home.  We
also saw Dad Crawford who lives 15 minutes from Hope and Tom.  We made
good time to around Newburgh, NY where it got icy rather suddenly.  We
saw no fewer than eight or nine cars spun off the road, serious to the
cars but thankfully we didn't see and people damage.

Hope and Tom live in a sprawling planned community.  The entrance is
guarded by a surly gate operator who wanted to know who I was, who I
was visiting, and what my blood type was.  He asked me what type of
van I was driving but then proceeded to tell me that he could only
write "van" anyway on the tag I was obliged to hang from my rearview
mirror.  The family did warn me, and the rumors are true about the 
gatekeeper!

The Hemlock Farms community has a community center with an indoor pool,
and Uncle Tom took the kids down for a swim.  I followed a little
later.  You see, Andrew's jeans shorts were inappropriate so we got
him a pair of Hope's Everlast exercise shorts and no one was the
wiser.  The community center also has a steam room, a sauna, and a hot
tub, but people under 17 are not allowed in these luxurious
accomodations.  Miranda enjoyed the privileges of her adult status.
Jessica, my 16-1/2 year old, seemed to me close enough (and she'd been
in hot tubs hotter than 101 degrees many times before) so I encouraged
her to bend the rules a bit while Emily and Andrew looked on with
obvious doleful envy.  She enjoyed the hot tub but was nabbed in the
steam room by the life guard (who wasn't much older than she was I
daresay)!  I hope we didn't get our hosts into hot water because of 
my parental misguidance and criminal abetting.

On Sunday, we went to the Church at Hemlock Farms (Methodist by the
cover on the hymnal) and it was very nice indeed... except the part
when they wanted their guests to stand up and introduce themselves.
We were the only guests (with the gumption to stand).  The silver
lining to this came during the "How-do-you-do" time as a weather 
warning by the people behind us (asking how long we intended to stay) 
because Hemlock Farms was about to be hemmed in with snow.

We had a lovely dinner in a very lovely home and headed back in snow
until about a half hour to Hartford, CT.  The time was short but nonetheless
enjoyable.  We took Miranda back to ENC and made our way home to Pepperell
to get ready for the coming week.

Have a great week, folks!

Mark
                                  @       Mark Metcalfe, Sr. Writer
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