Barbershop Competition & Chemo Home Stretch

With the competition just over, my fasting lab work tomorrow morning, and then after breakfast, Bob's last chemotherapy tomorrow; my surgery the next week and nightly calls to Mom I am over the top - oh and having to ask a tenant to move out and having a new one staying in our little lavender guest room - I know there's more. Yes! I am going through a transition in my work in preparation for serving as project manager for the renovation of the NY office of AFSC before I retire in May. I expect that in about a month the person who will follow me as administrator (at least temporarily) will be on board and I will be able to begin to orient him or her.

The competition didn't turn out as well as the group hoped. They were 5th last year and 8th this year (out of 24) and down from 79 points to 76. Bob was pretty tight and ready to "compete". I thought they were going to be amazing! So did they. And therein may have been the problem. But so many quartets and choruses were great - the Westchester Chordsmen included - that it was a musical feast aside from the disappointment.

This is the last time for a while that the competition will be in Wildwood, NJ with it's fake plastic palm trees and long beach stretching straight north and south as far as the eye can see and a 10 story high ferris wheel that they say is the highest on the east coast. It's a honky tonk kind of town and I don't think I'd want to be there in the summer. But I did feel a somewhat surprising nostalgia this time - our 4th.

On the way home we stopped in to see Aunt Jean. She was really excited to see us - kind of jumped to hug us both. She showed us all around the facility where she lives. It's lovely. Large. No great views like Kendal on Hudson. But not everyone can have that! Returning to her pleasant 1 bedroom apartment I was soundly beaten at a game of Scrabble. Bob came in closer to her score of 188 with 174 or something. But I was creamed. It was fun anyway. Then she topped off this surprise visit with dishes of strawberry ice cream topped with sliced fresh strawberries. Delightful.