Hello on Friday

Dear Friends,

The Royal Wedding is taking place as I begin this e-mail. I don't have the television turned on yet, and I am not sure if I will.

Our Thursday went as planned. Our house is totally ready for the Tewksbury Curley's. I dug out a bunch of old Match Box cars for Max to play with. Both Michael and Kevin had their own sets of cars. I did notice that more metal was used in the older cars compared to the set which Max has right now. We did go to a couple of stores to look for some tracks so that Max can roll his Matchbox cars down, but we couldn't find the same set up which Max has at home. When Kevin and Kyla are packing for Max, they will have to throw in a set of plastic tracks so Max can continue to play with the cars as he does at home.

Max has pretty much outgrown the infant size portable crib that he will be sleeping in at our home. Max will be like one of his Matchbox cars put into the slotted containers. At home he has been sleeping in a regular bed, I am not sure if he will be able to adjust to the portable crib. We are also not sure if he will be able to climb out of the portble crib. We will soon find out.

We don't know when the Tewksbury Curley's will be arriving in Pittsfield, but we will most likely not even be at home. We have the UNICO Wine Tasting Event at the Berkshire Hills Country Club this evening which starts at 6 PM. We want to go early because I am going to reserve 2 tables side by side. I have at least 14 people who have purchased tickets who want to sit together. There is still room at one of those tables (for the moment) for other friends to join us.

In between cleaning the house, and setting up for a toddler, we did go off to the Wake of a former colleague of Linda and me. The 75 year old man died of Alzheimer's disease. He spent the last few days of his life in a Soldiers Home about 30 miles from Pittsfield.

We have three other friends who have the disease, and UNICO is doing a fund raiser for one of them on Sunday May 15 at the Berkshire Hills Country Club.

Linda and I were both aching quite a bit from closet sorting adventure on Wednesday and the house cleaning on Thursday.

The wine, beer, and liquor tasting at a newly renovated Liquor store didn't happen on Thursday. I asked one of the workers if we missed it, but she said that the tasting took place on certain days. I told her the local "Penny Savers" booklet, that you can pick up at grocery stores, etc. said that there were tastings taking place every day of this week. She knew nothing about it, and I didn't have the Penny Saver booklet with me verify that I was correct. I did go home and showed Linda that my dates were correct. Could I have gotten a rain check on the wine, beer, and liquor tasting?

The destruction in the Southern States from the Tornadoes is difficult to watch on television. There are still many missing people buried in the rubble, and the rescue workers are finding more bodies each day. Yesterday they found the body of a five year old girl. NBC reassigned Matt Lauer from the Royal wedding to the tornado ravaged States.

We did get a little wind and rain at various times on Thursday, but not any tornadoes. The Berkshires hills protect us quite a bit from incoming tornadoes.

Other global events have been put on the back pages of most media outlets. The Royal Wedding, the Tornadoes, and the liftoff of the Space Shuttle this afternoon out of Cape Canaveral have been dominating most of our news.

My baby boomer cousin (Military veteran) and his wife from Florida were part of a Motorcyle Motorcade for a soldier who was killed in Afghanistan. The motorcade accompanied the body from the airport to the funeral home. This is a sad reminder that war is not a good way of solving problems. It is also a reminder to all of us that we should thank all of the men and women past and present who have made this land of ours a great place to live.

Weather -- We have 5 or 6 days of good sleeping weather coming up; 60 degree range for the highs, and 40's for the lows. It is still not time to plant flowers because some of the lows might be low enough to hit the freezing mark. Memorial Day weekend or the first week of June is our target dates for planting in the Berkshires.

Sports -- I did get to watch the Red Sox last evening. They won the final game of the Baltimore series. For the Yankee fans, they did beat up the White Sox last night too. The NFL draft started yesterday. Some of the first round of the best players in the country end up being a bust when they make it to the pro's. The Patriots have some early round picks, but Coach Belechik will often give up his top choices for some no name player from some small college who turns out to be a winner.

Well, I have to do some quiet chores before I head out the door. Today is my Friday golf with the seniors. The rain yesterday might still delay letting golf carts out on the course. We won't have many of my older senior friends on the course if carts aren't available. If I don't play golf, I give my lawn a trim.

Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad