And another year goes by with increased velocity! There were many good things in 2022, and quite a few that were less pleasant. Here’s the rundown, more or less in order of importance.
The big, positive news was that Ross, Hollie, and Noah moved up to this area from Villanova. They have new jobs, Hollie at Lahey Medical Center in Burlington, and Ross working in medical safety for Biogen in Cambridge, working several days a week from home. Noah is going to pre-school at the International School of Boston, which is working out well for him, so far. Ross and Hollie bought a lovely house right on the green in Lexington Center, walking distance to shops and restaurants, and about 15 minutes from our place by car, only a little longer than that by bike on the Minuteman Trail. It was a lot of work and gnashing of teeth finding a place for them to land, but things worked out very well. We’ve already celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas chez Mattauer, as well as the usual slew of birthdays that seem to appear at the same time each year. But we’re almost over that season now, phew!
On the negative side we saw far too many friends and relatives having serious medical issues. Lots of cancer and a variety of other issues, and, of course, a few covid cases, though only a couple of those at all serious. Nobody succumbed to their conditions, fortunately, though an old friend died after having had full-blown AIDS for more than 30 years. His joie de vivre during the entire time I’d known him was an inspiration, though. This business of getting older is not so easy.
We did have some nice travels during the year, including our first air travel for pleasure. We had a couple of trips to Villanova to visit with and help Ross & Hollie out with some Noah care.
On the business side, Ben has continued doing the angel investment stuff, especially mentoring and coaching entrepreneurs. We both went up for a day trip to Brunswick, Maine to see a rocket engine test being done by a company that Ben recently invested in. It was pretty cool for two children who grew up with NASA and Star Trek, and we also stopped in Portland on the way home for a nice seafood dinner. Much more on his professional web site.
Kathy continues to be kept far too busy managing her mother’s finances and other administration, but is looking for more interesting opportunities.
We also spent time, money, and effort on a number of fixed and upgrades around our home: repainted the house, upgraded a few windows, got a new microwave (finally!) and range, revamped the fixtures in the downstairs bathroom that were original to the house in the mid 1950s.
We were slightly relieved by the outcome of the elections here, though we had hoped for even better in order to counteract the reactionary leftovers in high places that the previous administration left for us. We we also appalled by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and by the reelection of Bibi in Israel. We are hoping that somehow things turn around in 2023 to allow more progress to be achieved.
Here are some details of trips and activities with links to photo albums
In April Ben went up to Ithaca to see his “little sister”, Manou, who was visiting with her family.
We had another week in Ithaca in early June, this time with full wet suits for the sailing.
Over the summer we went kayaking and hiking with friends.We Kayaked up the Aberjona River from Mystic Lake to Winchester Center. It was during the Black Crown Night Heron migration, so quite spectacular to see all these birds. We also went for a lovely walk in the Andover Bird Sanctuary. Kathy and I paddled around the circumference of Spy Pond in Arlington.
In July we flew out to San Francisco to visit a wide assortment of friends. We stayed with our friends who have a winery in Palo Alto where they had a lovely outdoor jazz concert, visited my 92 year old “other mother” who lives in assisted living there, as well as our friend’s son in Oakland, our cancer surviving friend in SF itself, and the widower of the old friend that had passed away only a couple of weeks before our visit. Plus walks along the bay shore, drives through the mountains to the Pacific, and a visit to Hakone, a very peaceful Japanese garden.
In September we boldly hopped across the pond to London where we enjoyed the three day festivities around my eldest cousin’s 70th birthday in Oxford. We stayed in a lovely old hotel right on the Thames in Radley and gabbed with cousins and friends from around the globe. Most of the events were outdoors, but even so we heard of a couple of covid cases, including one in our traveling party, fortunately extremely mild and with just a little extra masking and distancing none of the rest of us came down with it. The we went down to London and did a little more sightseeing, though some of the destinations were closed down due to QEII’s death, which happened just as we were landing at Heathrow. A couple of highlights were a visit to the Maritime Museum in Greenwich, as well as a trip to the Sky Garden atop the “walkie talkie” building. And, of course, pub meals, and an 18 course Chinese lunch. And staying with Ben’s cousin in Chalk Farm was special, as always.
In October we went to Saratoga to attend niece Emily’s wedding to Sal. We booked a huge house on AirBNB and had several of the cousins staying with us there, along with Ariana, Ross, Hollie, and Noah. The place could not have been better for this crew: most of the house was Star Wars themed, ranging from the normal things one might imagine to pictures on the dining room walls of Star Wars characters in bucolic settings. Plus three racing car themed twin beds that Noah just adored. It was great to see everyone. We also did a nice hike up Prospect Mountain with the crew.