On this overcast and freezing morning we might rather be in Fort Myers.  But as ready as we may be, we remain in PA at least until Thursday.  Still, we perceive a successful outcome to a battle of sorts that we have been engaged in for almost a month.

Dad Strehl is to be discharged from the rehab hosptial on Wednesday.  He may be ready to die, but his body is not quite ready to give up.

            On the morning of August 30, 1996 I started my first fire by friction using a bow drill I carved myself.  As a participant at one of my later workshops put it, “I felt like a cave man!”  The feeling that comes from the experience is very deep, joyful and primal.  The experience was compounded as I had been working for 5 days for this fire.  My wife, twin daughters and I spent that last

Anne and I returned home last night after a 600 mile (round-trip) $215 dollar (gas, tolls, lodging, and restaurant meals) expedition to Ashtabula, Ohio on the shore of Lake Erie.  Our life-list now includes the Black-tailed Gull, a handsome dark-mantled coastal bird typically found along the western edge of Asia.

Anne and I attended the annual Dedication Day ceremony this morning at Soldiers’s National Cemetery.  It was a beautiful clear and frosty morning and, because this year November 19 falls on a Saturday, there were no seats.  Still, it was wonderful. 

The program is straight forward.  After the presentation of colors, the national anthem, a welcome, introductions, and invocation, the keynote speaker is introduced.  This year it was an actor, Stephen Lang, whose remarks focused on what those who died there have given us. 

Anne and I are home and happy.  We are to be on South Mountain mostly until January when we will travel to Florida.  We expected December to be hectic with both visitors here and travel for the holidays.  November was supposed to be quiet for chores and catch up. 

 Congratulations Bob!

Anne didn’t enjoy it one bit.  I helped, but she did the research and chatted with the salesmen.  It has been a three month process, but today she finished contracting for health insurance under Medicare. 

I provide this report because I know many of you are also approaching the magic age of 65 and will have to endure the ordeal of signing up for Medicare.  Good luck.

Good News.  Electricity has returned to our home on South Mountain. 

Bad News.  Telephone and Internet Service have left. 

I write from the library after spending weekend with Mom and Dad Strehl in York.  We made a quiet celebration of my Dad's 91st birthday.  Nobody else could come because of nearly a foot of snow in these parts on Saturday.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon, setting up camp in Rexford - thanks Norb and Susan, and began finding and greeting members of the Woods clan starting with James who arrived to mow when we were unpacking.  The weather is now great and gave us a wonderful drive out of the White Mountains, down along the Connecticut River, across southern Vermont, and finally over the Hudson River and into the Schenectady area.