John is 93

John, looking good Yesterday was John’s birthday, February 2, 2012. He was 93 years young, still going strong. The nursing home, West Shore Health Center staff suggested to have the birthday celebration on Wednesday, one day earlier because there could be a volunteer guitar player. It turned out to be incorrect but the party went on.

We had ordered a birthday cake and some pizza slices. We picked them up and went to the nursing home. The staff helped set up the cake, pizzas, and the soda and Jan and Edda went to pick up John from his room. They arrived with him 10 minutes or so later, he was walking with his walker but looked good. He helped cut the first slice of he cake which the nurse gave to him to enjoy. Jan had made his favorite, tomato soup cake. Don’t let the name fool you, it is quite good especially with lots of spices Jan adds to it.

John opened a couple of gifts, an album Jan made for him containing his photographs from when he was in the air force and from his later life, and a small gift from Edda. He seemed to enjoy looking at them and showing the photographs to the staff. All the residents at the activity room participated in sharing the cake and the pizza slices, one even came for a second piece of the cake. We stayed about an hour and left. I am sure John will enjoy sharing the album with others and telling them stories about his air force days.

Happy birthday John.

Hurricane Irene

A The maple tree in the front is a blur slow moving and very large storm, Hurricane Irene passed through the east coast of the country. It hit us starting early Sunday and went through at is slow pace battering everything in its path. We could see the impact of the wind on the trees all around us; luckily they all survived. You will see in the photographs below the large pine tree in our backyard and the maple in the front being blown in all directions. I took the photographs mostly on a tripod and longer than usual exposures, about 20-30 seconds to record the movement of the elements affected by the wind against the steady appearance of houses, fences, etc. [Read more...]

SLC: Sea Salt with Bill and Jane

Yesterday we met Bill and Jane at Sea Salt, where they had invited us for dinner. It is only a few minutes from Elif’s house. After we settled Elif took some photographs, then Mina was allowed to handle Nana’s camera with care. The second batch of photographs are the ones Mina took, as you can gauge from the lower than usual angle of view. After she took some photographs of us, Mina turned the camera on herself and took a series of self portraits. I fixed a few of them for cropping, but the faces she made to the camera are entirely hers.

The following are the photographs Mina took

SLC: Photo Shoot with Mina

Earlier today the girls went shopping and came back with a nice dress for Mina and a pair of shoes to go with that. She liked it so much and put it on right away. As she danced, the skirt flared out with the big bow on the back flying with her hair. After a while I asked if she wanted me to take some photographs in her new outfit and she agreed. Here are the results, Mina posing, twirling, and being herself.

SLC: Turkish Brunch

Elif Kids together had invited a group of her friends and their kids to a Turkish brunch so that we could meet them. In fact the kids are the common tie to them all. They either have met at school, story time, or other kid-related activities. All lovely people, doctors, scholars, software engineers, government workers, with lovely kids. Marsha and her daughter Claire were first to arrive. Claire reminded me of a fairy, very delicate with almost translucent skin. Then I met Ellie, Erin, Peter, and Sarah. Ellie, a software engineer, was from Lebanon and he enjoyed all the food selections “sucuklu yumurta” (Turkish peperoni with fried eggs) in particular. I had met Karen and her sons Rohan and Aditya on an Ojo conversation, now had a chance to meet them in person. Jan had met them all earlier and Rohan and Aditya called her Nana, like Mina calls her. In fact most of the kids seemed to call her Nana. (She does not like that a bit!!) Troy, Myra, Tallulah, and Harper arrived around the same time I believe. Troy runs the Caputo’s Deli where we enjoyed good music and deli sandwiches. The next group to arrive was Adam, Camille, Cameron, and Lian with Adam’s mother Kathy and Camille’s father Lawrence who did not stay around much. [Read more...]