Thar She Blows!

We are currently sitting out a nor'easter here in Gloucester.  The wind's been very strong for about the last two days.  The rain comes and goes, but when it does; it's in sheets straight-lining out to the water.  It doesn't feel threatening and it's certainly not the worst storm we've ridden out here but it does seem to be getting a great deal of media attention.  I did have to anchor myself to get some of these shots earlier today:

Robert and Bobbie visited last weekend and we had a great time touring the sites and sounds of Gloucester.  We even caught a rainbow shining over their heads!

Robert seeks shelter from the rain.

We walked to the end of the breakwater on a lovely afternoon and waved at the boats coming in.

It was great to have some real time to sit and chat and get caught up.  We truly appreciated that they made the trip out here so we could share some of what we love about the place.

My birthday was very nice.  I've discovered that I love spending my birthday here, regardless of the weather situation.  Since it was rainy, we toured the Cape Ann Museum and the Maritime Heritage Center.  Naturally everyone else in the city had the same idea for a rainy day, but it was still fun. 

We are swiftly coming to the end of our little getaway so we find ourselves trying to pack in all that remained on our wish list for this trip.  I definitely got my fair share of family research accomplished!  We got ourselves some weather as an added plus.  So I guess I'll see you on the other side back in Harpursville again!

The good life continues here in Gloucester for me.  James stays in Harpursville during the week to take care of his obligations but I get to stay here.  It's a little lonely some of the time, but I have been working on family history so much that names and dates float through my head throughout the nights. 

James was here last weekend to celebrate his birthday.  A trip to Boston University to see one of his former field hockey players who now plays for UCONN.  It was a barn-burner but the "good guys" won in a shootout after a double overtime game.  He looks happy, doesn't he?

The trip worked out well as a trial run for my own trip to the Boston Public Library tomorrow by train and subway.  At least that's the plan for now. 

As I've been working on the family tree (all Ryan all the time), it's interesting to note that those little shaky green leaves that the Ancestry.com commercials talk about came to life this week--for the Italians!  Bentivoglio, Maistrelli, Manzelli, Dalpiaz and Odorizzi.........all these hints and I can't easily follow up on them until I get back to my records at home.  Stay tuned and we'll see what happens.

James got a nice phone call from Thomas for his birthday.  They had a nice chat reminiscing about street football games in the neighborhood.  Coincidentally, last night there was an episode of The Middle during which the mom tried to get the kids to get along better.  They ended up playing parents vs kids in street football--and it worked to bring the kids together!  The problem for the parents was that grew tired of these games much faster than the kids did.  I'm quite certain that wasn't a problem for James and Thomas during their games.....I'm right, aren't I?  :)  Anyhow, that show made me think about how nice it is that you siblings all found ways to get along and stay in touch.  I understand that's hard work but very much worth the effort.

On that note, we are expecting a visit from Robert and Bobbie this weekend.  We hope they enjoy Gloucester but, in any case, we are looking forward to time together continuing those efforts to share experiences and spend time together.  A report will be forthcoming.

October 10 1955 and 2014

This is one of our favorite first stops when we visit Gloucester!  It will be wonderful to be able to celebrate James' birthday here in Gloucester this year.  So far, I've been having a grand time -- doing family history research on a full time basis while James takes care of the homestead during the week.  Unfortunately for you, it's pretty much "all Irish all the time" and not so much with our Italians.

So let's add a new dimension to James' birthday celebration this year by thinking a little bit about October 10 1955.  It was a Monday, and we know that Monday's child is fair of face.  Right? So far, so good.  There were already 3 children of preschool age waiting at home for his arrival.  That's just hard to imagine. 

Eisenhower was President and Mitch Miller was playing on the radio.  Vice President Richard Nixon was featured on the cover of Time magazine that week--scary looking even then.  Speaking of scary, James shares his birthday with David Lee Roth. 

We had another "Pay it Forward" incident last week while James was here in Gloucester.  On our first night, we decided to have dinner at Giuseppe's, a restaurant we hadn't been to in a while.  We were having a drink at the bar while we waited for my aunt and uncle to arrive.  A woman was celebrating her 94th birthday so James offered to buy her a shot to celebrate.  Not surprisingly, she refused but was quite charmed at James' flirting with her.  I said if she refused a drink, she was definitely not related to the Ryans.  We were re-telling this story at our table after we were seated when a man approached the table to compliment James on how he treated the birthday girl.  He left his gift card with some remainder on it for us to apply to our meal and noted he was paying it forward. 

At first, I thought it was an appropriate turn of events following my previous efforts.  Then we learned that Giuseppe's unexpectedly closed its doors for good the very next day!  I think we'll try to have birthday dinner someplace we hope will be open the next day.