September 27, 2009 Draft Blog Posting

It is almost the end of September, and I have not updated the blog since July. A slacker, perhaps. I had intended to post a new entry after returning from the cottage in late August. We had a nice time visiting with family in Michigan. Located in The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore, the Jillson cottage is a nice retreat. While there, I played a few rounds of horrible golf and visited the Cherry Republic with Susan and the kids. Erick's good friend, Derrick Magnun came along and was a good sport. He even survived unscathed the nearly famous Peanut Butter war at Dearing's grocery.

On the way home, we were able to spend a few days with my folks in Cleveland before I needed to return to Connecticut with the boys; Susan and Hannah went to stay at her Mother's house before driving to Indiana pick to up our newest family member, Sadie. A sweet little black lab, who was born on July 1st, Sadie endeared herself to the family quickly. Here is a photo of the little girl on the 7 hour car ride from the breeder. She found the nape of Susan and Hannah's neck the ideal place to cuddle: never seen a dog do that before. Since her return to Connecticut, Sadie has gained about 5 pounds per week. Her paws keep getting bigger.

Hannah has started high school! She is earning good marks in the ninth grade at Simsbury High. This morning Hannah and her team had their first ballroom inter district of the year. The UCONN Ballroom competition is next weekend, as is homecoming. Hannah will be dancing the weekend away! The UCONN team asked Hannah to join them but she had already committed to the high school team. She will try to practice with the UCONN team on Sundays.

Erick is enrolled at Tunxis Community College. He and his longtime girlfriend, Evangeline have classes two nights a week. Erick also got his driver's license earlier this month. He took his written test in June but had to wait until September to take the driving part. He passed on the first try. As we were walking out to the car with the new license in hand, Erick tells me that we need to go back in an stand in line again. Why?, I ask. The DMV had marked “female” rather than male on his license. Just about no one wants to go back and stand in line again at the DMV, but our other options weren't very attractive.

Gavin is not enrolled in Tunxis yet as he simply waited too long to get the ball rolling on his transfer from Northwestern prior to registration deadline. I'm fairly certain that he plans to start up there in the spring. He is working lots of hours at Andy's Grocery Store.

Susan is still loving her job and it is going very well. Once a week her co-teacher Denise, “Nise”, comes over for lesson planning. They put out a monthly newsletter about what they are covering in the classroom so the parents are kept up to date through the school year.

Leaves are starting to change color and fall. The temperature is also falling. I am hoping to have plenty of cool New England small town photos for the next posting.

Gavin Turns Twenty

Two simultaneous posts: I know, it's weird. However it didn't seem right to put the photo from Gavin's birthday into Hannah's post. A separate post seemed more appropriate. Check out the huge candle in the cake. Dinner was my responsibility that evening; I forgot the birthday candles.

It's weird that G's no longer a teenager. While sitting down and thinking about how old we're getting (yes, that's a bald spot in the last post), I thought about how much the world has changed since Gavin came into the world. Here's a short list of things that come to mind:

• We've fought in two wars in Irag and one in Afghanistan. Except for the first gulf war, the outcomes and long term impact are still uncertain.


• There was no internet in 1989. Ok, there was a an internet, but virtually no one was using it. Personal computers ran MS/Dos or an early Mac OS. No one surfed the web. I got my first windows computer with AOL in 1995. We all sat down in the family room and cruised the web at 28.8 speed.


• Cell phones were the size of small boom boxes with huge antennas. Today, kids don't even talk on them. At least my kids don't.


• VHS was just beating out Betamax to become the standard. No one was watching movies on DVD.


• Music was purchased on cassettes, but CD's were becoming more common. Today, CD's and record stores are becoming a thing of the past. iTunes and iPods have fundamentally changed the industry. I saw an interview with Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic recently; he was announcing the closure of the last Virgin Megastore in the US.


• The Berlin wall fell, Germany was reunited and Russia became a democratic country, or did it?


• Many South Africans lived under Apartheid. Mandella was an opposition leader yet to lead the country through the truth and reconciliation process.


• Gavin has lived in Cleveland Heights, Rocky River, North Royalton, Gurnee, Grayslake, Shaker Heights, and Simsbury. He's gone to elementary, middle, high school and is now in college. Happy birthday, Gav!

I'm sure I've missed a ton: if you're motivated, add them to the bottom of the post.

Jeff

Hannah Rides, Play Basketball with Dad

Hannah has worked this summer at a stable in Granby, Connecticut. Each summer the stable holds a day camp for little children. They ride, learn about horses and generally have a good time. Hannah helps with the horses and looks after the kids.

In return, her riding time is complimentary. Saturday mornings have become the default riding time. Driven to the stables by Mom, Hannah will spend several hours riding. Here's a photo of Hannah jumping. A rumor exists that Susan also did some riding, but there are no photos that exist of this. An inside source tells me that she also jumped. Next week's mission: get photos of Susan jumping.

I'm throwing in this photo of the daddy daughter basketball game. Hannah is celebrating a basket that she made from the top of the key. I've just gotten the rebound.

Hannah & Christina

In March of this year, Hannah's good friend Christina moved back to her home near Manchester Center, Vermont. While she had only lived in Simsbury for about nine months, Hannah and she became fast friends.

Early in June Hannah made the trip to Vermont (about a 3 hour drive) to see Christina's graduation and spend some quality time with her BFF. Dropping her off, and being a complete geek, I realized that there was a historical landmark on their property. Situated right next to her house was an 18th century blast furnace used in the revolutionary war era. It's worth mentioning that her home is right near the Bennington battlefield site, where Hessian soldiers were defeated soundly during the war.

I digress. After the graduation ceremony, Hannah and Christina returned to Simsbury for two full weeks of fun. The two of them palled around and generally had a good old time seeing old friends and attending end-of-the-year parties.

All photo credits go to Susan, who made multiple trips to Vermont.

Erick Graduates High School

Fighting through high temperatures and near 100% humidity, Erick walked across the stage on Saturday morning (June 26th) to receive his high school diploma. Like just about everything else that he does, he took it in stride.

Needless to say, we're proud of him. Nights spent rocking him on my knee seem as if they happened yesterday. A colicky baby, Erick seldom went to sleep easily or on time. Coaching him in little league, camping together, or playing at the cottage in Michigan are some of my favorite memories. I distinctly remember him and me throwing his cousin, Simon Jillson, high in the air and letting him splash through an inner-tube into Lake Michigan (not to worry, Simon loved it.)

Writing about how time passes in the blink of eye is truly cliche. When you're in the midst of it, it's hard to focus on the forest and not the trees in front you. Time does pass. Kids go to elementary school, then to middle school, and finally to high school. We look back and wonder where the time has gone. Love and memories are all that is left. Congratulations, Erick.

Erick is bound for Tunxis Community College in the fall; he wants to become a police officer.

On hand for the festivities were my parents, Larry and Virginia Boulden; Susan's mother, Marisue Besse; Evangeline Plattner, Erick's girlfriend, and Erick's friends Derrick Magnon and Bill Williams. I've tried to include a representative smattering of pictures. Take a look.

All for now.

Penbrook State Forest

Went for a walk this afternoon in the Penbrook State Forest. The state protected area runs for more than six miles atop Talcott mountain. The trail itself was part of the Metacomet trail, named for Chief Metacomet who is said to have watched Simsbury burn from a cave on Talcott mountain during the Narragansett Bay War of the early 1600's.

The trail goes up and down over several ridges and the climbs are moderate to challenging. Check out this photo of the trail right before the summit. If you look closely, you can see a little blue mark on the big boulder denoting the path of the trail. I had to force myself to watch every step.

Once you've put in all that work, it's only a short distance up an incline (of course) to the summit. From there one can clearly see the steeple of the United Church of Christ in Simsbury; downtown Simsbury and cemetery; West Simsbury; and the Barndoor Hills. Taking the pictures was a bit of challenge after the long hike, but the view was fantastic. Looking to the left, one can see across two ridges to the Heublin Tower, built in the 1920's. What a house.

Okay, I'm almost done with the photos. On the way to the summit, I stumbled upon Lake Louise and snapped the photo of the frog that you see here. Little guy was about two feet away just mac'n out on the Lilly Pad.


Finally, someone or several someones had gone to a number of different points in the park and created these funky rock statues. They looked kinda cool, so I took some photos. Is there any significance to them, or were they just done on a lark.

To see a large view of any of the photos in this blog, just click the photo and it will open up in separate window or tab.

Walking in Connecticut - Inter District Ballroom Competition

While browsing around the library for something diverting to read, I came across a binder called the Connecticut Walk Book. For some reason I picked it up and started flipping through the pages.

Inside the book are trail details for some great hikes throughout the state. They range from the duck pond down the street to the 26 mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail that passes through the Western part of the state on its way to Maine.

Yesterday (I know - Mother's Day) Susan and I picked a trail out that starts near Barn Door Hill road in Simsbury and continues into Granby's McClean Game Refuge. The walk was awesome - we were just about the only people for miles.

I've posted a couple of photos of really cool things we saw. The first was a turn of the 20th century manure spreader; at least that is what my sources report. A small secluded pond was the second. I wouldn't have taken too much prodding for me to have stayed.

Inter District Ballroom Competition

Hannah's Simsbury team stole the show, beating out other Connecticut High Schools, at a regional ballroom competition. Standing out from the crowd, Hannah was awarded a number of ribbons.

She's enthused about dancing and does it well. Someone, and I'm not sure who, took a ton of really cool photos. I've picked out a few that I enjoy. To see more, please visit Susan's Facebook page, or contact Susan directly via e-mail.

That's all for now. Back in touch soon.