In the city

With Mary Lee's service safely passed, I'm on to a week of business and seeing people here in the New York region. The first order of business was getting Natalie to JFK for a 7 am flight. At 5:30 in the morning there was a 20 minute line at security, which I suppose shouldn't be a shocker. Likewise, here in Queens, there was no real traffic out there on the Grand Central Parkway and Van Wyck Expressway, but the roads were certainly far from empty. Again, I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was a little disappointed, because between the cars and a light rain it was hard to just relax and enjoy rare time in the car alone with my daughter.

Mary Lee's service was lovely and we had a great time seeing everybody. I suppose I should narrate it for posterity but honestly I think everyone will remember it well enough that I'll pass.

Yesterday, at Natalie's insistence, we all piled in the car and drove down to Larchmont to walk in Manor Park and have a look at the changes that have been wrought on the old Berridge manse on Circle Avenue. Everyone had been somewhat aghast at the new porch on the house -- which clashed with its Tudor bones -- and the paint colors as shown on Google Maps. In person it was mildly less horrific. Everyone gets that the porch adds very welcome functionality -- especially the screened in portion of it. Certainly everyone realizes that adding air conditioning was a smart thing to do and we kind of feel like fools for not having done it before, though it was only ever in play after George Sr passed in 2009 because things that cost real amounts of money were not open for discussion while he was still around.

I hear Graham stirring upstairs. Time for some QT with the boy.