It’s been nearly two years since I published news, so sad. I’ll try to be better this year, honestly, though I’m planning on focusing on getting pictures organized and published.
Since the last update so many things have happened!
Kathy left her job at Fortress Technologies / General Dynamics in June 2016. She took the rest of the year off, but certain occurrences on November 8 left her feeling that being employed for a few more years would be a good thing. So she’s been working since April at 128 Technology, a startup in Burlington, MA (very close to our home) that is fixing the internet (and you don’t know it was broken). For those of you who want to learn more about the stuff 128T is up to, they have a youtube channel.
Ben has continued as an angel investor, and has been doing some international speaking. He’s had some successes in 2017, and a couple less successful. More on his professional site.
As usual, there’s been a ton of travel and interesting events. In order, with some links to photo albums to be provided later:
Ben went to India as an invited “foreign delegate” to the IndiaSoft trade show in Mumbai, and also spoke at Ahmedabad University.
Ben & Kathy went to LA and the Bay Area in August 2016. Had some very hot hikes and a kayak trip with Ariana in LA and some lovely visits with friends “upstate.”
In October 2016 Ben & Kathy went to Italy (with a short visit with cousin Martin in London on the way). We spent a night in Pisa and then five days in Cinque Terre, which is indeed a spectacular piece of the world. Lots of intense hiking and good food. One balances the other, you see.
We spent Christmas 2016 with Kathy’s sister Karen in Saratoga, NY. K’s parents, our kids, and Karen’s were all there. Sadly, Lisa and her family couldn’t join us, but fun was still had by all.
2017 saw us doing more travel, yet.
Ben took a ski trip to Sugarbush with friend Mike.
In late January into early February Ben & Kathy joined our friends Tom & Michelle in Grenada for a night, then headed off to Cariacou, a smaller island nearby, for a week of beach time. We normally do a lot of snorkeling, but the winds were up so we did a couple of SCUBA dives instead. It was spectacular! We also geeked out on the island, helping to fix a DICOM system the local clinic had inherited. Busman’s holiday, but actually quite fun.
In May Ben bopped back out to LA to help Ariana replace her car and also to attend a concert by her client, the Persian singer Shakar. Ben, being completely unaware of much popular culture, was still very impressed with the concert. It was at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood (yes, the same one where the Oscars are held). And yes, Shakar’s guest star was that Andrea Bocelli.
At the end of June Ben traveled to Europe again, accompanied by his sister Celia and her son Jeff, this time to France for a very moving family event. Ben’s mother escaped to Paris during WWII, and when the Nazis invaded she and her family managed to escape again to a small town called Mézières-en-Brenne in the middle of nowhere in France. The townspeople protected her family when the Vichy Nazis again threatened them, hiding them until they could make yet another escape. For this aid, my mother’s family put one particular family in for the Yad Vashem award ("Righteous Among The Nations”). Several cousins from my family convened in Mézières to attend the ceremony granting the award. We spent a few days afterward exploring Loire châteaux, and then a couple of days in Paris.
During July and August, Ben spent a lot of time on his road bike. He’d wanted to do a “century” (100 mile ride in a day) for a couple of years, but hand’t managed to get there until this year. With a very hilly half century charity ride stoking his confidence, he signed up for a very flat charity ride a couple of weeks later that offered the choice of a metric century (100km) and a full century. The weather turned out to be perfect so he completed the century and was inordinately proud of himself.
In September Ben and Kathy went to Paris for a week of museums, sightseeing, and far too much good food.
In October Ben made one more charity ride, this time in honor of one of Ariana’s good friends who had died during the summer from Cystic Fibrosis.
Having missed out on a summer trip to Ithaca for a number of reasons, Ben and Kathy spent a very nice but very brief long weekend visiting Celia and Dan and other friends there in mid-October.
The week after a nice Thanksgiving dinner with Mike and Pam in the Boston area, Ben again crossed the Atlantic to London, where he was an invited speaker at a healthcare innovation conference.
Finally, Ben and Kathy joined much of the rest of the Kerby crew at the family homestead on the Chickahominy River in southern Virgina. All but three of the extended crew were able to make it, everyone traveling many hours by plane or car. At peak there were 17 people and five dogs in the house! As usual, many card games, lots of good dinners and desserts!
In December 2016 and April 2107 we said very sad goodbyes to two more of Ben’s mother’s generation: her youngest cousin Martin and her older sister Eva.