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1-03-2007 Accompanying them on the trip were their two English bulldogs, Bella and Barnaby who are, we think, rather good travelers. Unfortunately, they are not very good when it comes to packing up to leave. The two dogs always seem to operate under the assumption that they will be left behind. Needless to say they never have been, for which we are grateful, and probably never will be, for which we are also grateful. Nonetheless, the packing up mode throws them into a veritable tizzy of terror until they are safely in the appointed mode of transportation. We spent Christmas Eve with the he-we's cousin, Harvey Eckler and his wife, Alice, of Fly Creek. Also in attendance Christmas Eve were two of the Ecklers' daughters, Gail and her husband, Steve Nagel, of Selkirk, N.Y., and Katie and her husband, Ed White, of Salisbury, Md. The Nagels' son, Kevin, who attends the vet school at Cornell, was also there as were the Whites' sons, Bryan and his partner Jackie and their two daughters, Allyssa and Hailey, and Christopher and his daughter, Isobelle. Christmas Day found us partaking of a Christmas repast with Sandy and Al Bullard of Milford. Also there for the festivities were Sandy's mother, Peg Martin, and the Bullards' oldest daughter, Rebecca with her husband, Barry, and their two children, Nathanial and Lily. All in all, we had a most enjoyable holiday. Unfortunately, as the weewe and wee-she motored to Martha's Vineyard to spend New Year's with her parents, Hal and Judy Higby, the trip was not as smooth as might have been liked. Just the other side of Sharon, they had a flat tire complicated by lousy cell phone service. And while the wee-we was able to get the flat tire off the car, he was not able to get the spare tire on the car as the jack was uncooperative. Fortunately, someone familiar with Sharon appeared on the scene and offered to get another jack and help get the spare tire on. They then returned to Sharon where, at the Sharon Hill Garage, Inc., they were able to have two new back tires put on the vehicle, after which they continued somewhat less than merrily on their way. However, the wee-we assures us that "If anyone has any trouble around Sharon, the Sharon Hill Garage is the place to go. It's run by John, John Jr. and Cindy, father, son and daughter. It's a real family thing. They were great!" Of course, the major problem with the flat tire incident was that it took enough time that it seemed highly unlikely that they were not going to make it to Woods Hole, Mass. in time to get the ferry to Martha's Vineyard. And even though they did not stop for the rest of the trip, they did indeed miss the ferry. And unfortunately, missing the ferry is never a good moment. For the upcoming holiday weekend, all subsequent ferries were booked and so they were put on standby. Luckily, space was found on the 8:30 ferry, the last one of day, and so they did make it to Martha's Vineyard a little over 12 hours after leaving Cooperstown. We do not believe it will go down as one of the wee-we's all time favorite trips. And, as we sat waiting by the cell phone, we are positive it was not one of our all time favorite trips and we weren't even on it. And while we are still celebrating Christmas, which, as we all know, runs through the 6th of January, we nonetheless are looking forward several upcoming events in January. The first of these is the Women's Club meeting, on Jan. 8 at 2 p.m. in the Christ Church Parish House. We have every reason to believe that the program for this meeting will prove to be quite entertaining. Tim Wiles, Research Director for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, will discusses his new book/CD combination "Baseball's Greatest Hit: The First Century of Take Me Out to the Ball Game." In doing so he will cover a number of topics, of which the most intriguing one, from our point of view, has to be a recording by Harpo Marx. We simply cannot imagine what the recording might be as, if we remember correctly, Harpo was on the silent side. The meeting is open to all members of the club and their guests as well as anyone else who has an interest in the program. Also coming up later this month is the next meeting of the Literary Discussion Group, sponsored by the Women's Club of Cooperstown, which will be held on Thursday, Jan. 24 at 2:30 p.m. at the Village of Cooperstown Library. The book for discussion will be "Atonement" by Ian McEwan. This meeting is also open to anyone who wishes to attend. In closing, we tend to think that 2007 has left us absolutely exhausted. And unfortunately, we are unable to pin point exactly the reason for that exhaustion. We didn't travel more than is usual. Our number of houseguests remained fairly constant. We didn't take on any new time consuming activities, even though we still had all of the old time consuming activities. The number of energy draining holidays in the year did not change. And yet, we are exhausted in spite of the fact that we have managed, once again in 2007, to turn 29. It isn't possible that remaining 29 for years on end is, in and of itself, exhausting? We certainly hope not. We remain, In these Otsego hills, The Ellsworths The Ellsworths may be reached by mail at 105 Pioneer St., Cooperstown, N.Y. 13326, by telephone at 547- 8124 or by e-mail at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com. They look forward to hearing from you. |
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