No Hot Water!
"Hey Grandpa, no hot water", called Margaret from the shower. "Take a cold shower.", replied Grandpa Paul, thinking that he didn't even know where the hot water heater was in the Gladwyne house. Oh well, maybe I'll take a shower at Tabetha's house later thought Margaret as Grandpa Paul, Anthony and Nanny Margaret headed out on their daily walk to the grocery store. David was in Seattle and Heidi was "on-call" at HUP. Grandpa'd wait until noon to call David on the West Coast.As they walked by their next-door-neighbor, Grandpa commented to neighbor,Linda about the water situation. Having an identical house and having lived there for almost twenty years, Linda suggested that since the heavy rains of Floyd the night before, she thought that it was highly likely that there was water in the boiler hole in the half basement under the house. Water in the hole!? They turned around and Margaret ( with much better knees than Grandpa) crawled to the hole. "Sure enough"," yelled back Margaret,"there's about 4 inches of water that I can see". "Oh great, who do I get to service a flooded boiler and hot water system?", wondered Grandpa knowing that David had just installed a new system about 4 months ago. Suddenly, Margaret pointed to a refrigerator magnet.... it read, "Duffy's Heating, tel" 610 765-.... " Grandpa called Duffy's and within an hour they sent a repairman. And within 1 1/2 hours after his arrival, the water was lowered in the hole, the furnace and hot water system were working, and the repairman replaced the motor that had been under water and the coil windings had gotten wet.
No cold showers for the residents of Gladwyne! When David returned home from Seattle the next morning, his father showed him how the heavy rain waters of Floyd had entered the basement( throught the three venting windows that keep the basement from getting moldy and damp). That afternoon, David and his father set about making the basement more water proof. Dateline: Sept 19, 1999
Longwood Gardens
One of the most beautiful gardens on the East Coast is Longwood Gardens of Pennsylvania. Rachel and Paul took advantage of some wonderful September weather and drove along US Rt.1, for the 1 hour drive from Gladwyne. Of course, they wanted to take Margaret and little Anthony with them as well, and so they did.First stop in the Gardens ( admission is $12/adult) was the Conservatory, which our flower expert ( Rachel ) finds really exciting. As it was about noon when we finished the Conservatory, we decided to picnic outside and feed Anthnoy his lunch as well. We made a quick stop at the Cafe for drinks and then proceeded to walk two more hours in the different gardens that are within the more than 1000 acres of land.
In addtion to the many well maintained gardens ( and they are really kept up daily), there are fun things to do in the Garen like a visit to the Large Lake, where we purchased 10 cents worth of fish food and watched as the fish dove like crazy for the pittle pellets we fed them. Certainly one of the best things to do when in the Philadelphia area... the Longwood Gardens.
Autumn in New England
As the days grow shorter, the Baus of Weston have started their autumn rituals. The pool was closed for the season, the lawn was limed again and the winter fertalizer will be appled at the beginning of Novemeber. The Handyman will start to lower the height of the lawn mower, to give a "close cut" for the winter. And the air purifier filter will have to washed one last time before we shut down the outside faucets.Rachel has Paul assisting her in cleaning up the summer flower garden and planting winter mums and bulbs for next Spring. They've spent hours and hours on their knees and Paul is having a hard time with knee pain ( a sure sign that age is catching up on him!). Boy oh boy, just wait until the leaves start to fall. That will be lots of exercise and lots of fun.
Grandma Martha Celebrates 83rd
Grandma Martha Tzau, Rachel's mother, celebrated her 83rd birthday by spending the day (Oct.2) at the New England Fair held in Topsfield, Ma. She went there with Tierry (Rachel's youngest brother) and his wife Susanna and their three daughter. They all enjoyed watching the snake handlers, the allegator wrestlers, the puppet shows and of course all the farm competition winners.... biggest pumkin, best sheep dog, best milk cow, etc. Alecia Tzau's highlight was the camel ride.After the fair, Martha(Danger Mouses' Great Grandmother) joined Tierry, Susanna, their daugher along with Paul and Rachel at the Beijing Star Restaurant in Waltham for a birthday dinner. What animal is Grandma Martha? Why the wisest and most clever of them all of course, a snake.
Columbus Day Weekend in NYC
Paul, Rachel and Ron made the drive to NYC to spend the long weekend with Kevin in his new Morningside Garden Apartment. First thing Paul did was go to a homework work group session with Kevin for a marketing course he's taking at the Coumbia B School. It was lots of fun to meet some of the other students and work with them on a homework assignment.Arriving back home by mid afternoon, the Handyman had time, with the assistance of Kevin , to install a new vertical blind in the living room. Uncle Yen seems willing to make unending improvement to his apartment.
At 6:30, Rachel and Paul were expecting to host Deanna and her star piano student, Kyle, who has studied with Deanna for 10 years now. Kyle's parents were invited also. Paul and prepared a rib roast which was brought down from Boston. Baked potatos were placed in the oven. Rachel was pan frying some green vegetables and the onions were roasting in the oven with the beef. We knew that we'd be safe with the apple pie that we had brought from Wellesley Bakery. Anyway, the dinner was a big hit with Kyle eating four small portions of roast beef and Paul and Rachel enjoying his parents.
The biggest project for the weekend was the listing of Diane Kao's library. It's a wonderful collection built up over many years and consists of about 600 books. Someday, Yen and his mother may wish to donate the library to a University with an active Asian Studies department... a school like Columbia or CCNY will be high on the list.
Swimming Sessons at the YMCA
Well, Anthony is over a year old now, so he has begun his first in a long, long series of lessons. Nanny Margaret has taken Anthony to the Y in Ardmore 4 times now. The first time to observe. and then 2 "lessons". Most of the students in Anthony's class are his same age and they all seem to enjoy the water. But not Anthony! He's the only one in his class who cries and screams thoughout the lesson. He seems terrified of the water. At the end of his second lesson, the teacher/instructor suggested to Maggie that Anthony not come back as he was not yet "ready". Thge life guard was more encouraging and said,"Just keep bringing him back. He'll get used to it"On a "make-up" lesson on Saturday morning, Anthony and Margaret headed into the dressing room to change. Whaaaa! Anthony screamed and cried until he was brought into the pool area. This class was big with over 12 other students. Margaret stood there paralized as Anthony screamed for mercy. She took him back into the dressing room to calm a bit. Three minutes later, they emerged again, Anthony was quiet. As Margaret carried Anthony into the pool, he looked very worried but did not cry. Hmmmm, what going on here? For the first 15 minutes of the lesson, Anthony did all the exercises, but continued to look very worried.
Finally, for the last 15 minutes of the class, Anthony actually cracked a smile and began to enjoy himself. It looks like we may on the road to success here. Let's keep those legs kicking and bubbles blowing.
