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.

We, and most of Warwick lost power around mid-morning on Sunday which would not return until mid-afternoon on Wednesday. Soon after our land-line telephone service was cut off. An experience like this makes our extreme dependence on electricity painfully clear. Nothing worked, no TV, no computer, no recharging of devices like mobile phones, no light, no hot water, no AC, no cooking. After dark, reading was difficult so we listened to some radio talk shows (thanks to the battery powered radio) until they became repetitive or silly. Then we went to bed, much sooner than usual. And this repeated for 3 nights and almost 4 days.

The next evening after supper I took a walk around the block to see the extent of the damage. There was debris all around, from small twigs to large tree trunks all around. At the end of our street, Spring Green Rd, where it met Narragansett Parkway there were two major points of damage. One electric pole had its top broken and dangling down, and on the other side there were wires across the parkway. Those combined cut our electricity and they have just restored it this afternoon.

Anyway, Irene is now a memory for most people on the east coast. Although some are still without power, we are hoping that they will return to normalcy soon. Here are a few moments during the storm and its aftermath.

The following are the photographs Mina took

Elif had made several kinds of breads, accompanied by cheese selections, other breakfast food like olives, olive oil for dipping, and such. Later she made sucuklu yumurta which was a hit, people went for seconds. And so went mos of the afternoon, kids running around, swinging, and parents tending to occasional snags. There seemed to be a common parenting principles based on children cooperating, sharing, listening to each other, and not complaining. Later on Elif did story time, the kids sat on the kilim on the deck, she on the chair started reading stories. There were several interruptions, the usual stuff like need more juice, or bathroom break (which had high priority of course.) All in all, everyone enjoyed the afternoon and parties left at different times based on kids nap times and other commitments. Later on Cynthia arrived with Allegra who goes to school with Mina, Zola who looked devilish with two small bunches of hair on her head. Her ex-husband Alex had arrived a little earlier and they joined in the conversation and play. Cynthia, a geriatric medicine doctor, will be visiting Turkey next month and asked for tips for travel in Turkey. We suggested Istanbul being the highlight, then traveling down to the Aegean coast to Ayvalik, Izmir, Ephesus, Aphrodisias, possibly visiting side attractions in Tire and Sirince, moving on to Cappadocia and back to Istanbul.

The weather was getting a bit too hot for me, so I excused myself and went downstairs where it was about 10 degrees cooler even with no AC. I stayed there until they put the AC on and upstairs was cooling off. When I came upstairs, Mina was playing with Allegra; Alex and Allegra stayed for another half hour or so and left. We had our supper and was Mina’s bed time soon. A little later Jan and Elif went to bed as well. I stayed up a while and organized the photographs to share here. Fair warning, there are over 30 photographs in the collection despite my best efforts to cull them out. This is the bare minimum that will convey a sense of the Turkish Brunch.