“Engineer’s Daughter”
David has been saying this for a few years, and it is time to praise Tracy, with examples. Her spatial abilities in particular are better than his, and he has long since abandoned deciding on his own what size container is needed for the leftovers. She can see where objects will fit. There are other skills as well, such as decision trees for what has gone wrong. When we got home from a few days in Quebec City, both the primary and backup heat were not working properly. David had not even gotten all the luggage in before Tracy figured out the easy one and got it started. (Look, I would have figured it out eventually.) The second one was harder, but Tracy remembered the problem from a few years ago and knew what to google. David is inordinately pleased whenever he figures something out first. Natural science - birds, mushrooms, and wildflowers still bring her joy.
Engineer’s Great-Granddaughter
Emily went to St. Paul’s School Advanced Studies this summer to study engineering, so Tracy’s father’s genes are still in play in the world. We think that she and David are the only grandparent/grandchild pair to have attended the program. Em is applying to engineering colleges and acceptances are trickling in, while Jonathan and Heidi are still taking her on school visits. Sarah has started high school and picked up two more sports in addition to softball. The season never ends. The girls get the same twin question that Jonathan and Ben did for years, but they look different enough to us.
Arctic Wymans - Alaska and Norway
Aurora went to Subsistence Camp for a week this summer and can now sorta kinda lasso and butcher a reindeer. There was also gold panning, packrafting, catching salmon, and metal detecting. A lot of these are hobbies the whole family already has, including her younger sisters Quinn and even Bella. Jocie continues to have millions of people watch her cook Filipino food with Nome ingredients and JA was on “Outdoor Boys” again. We will see them in Orlando in January. Chris and Maria decided to join us there as well, all the way from Tromso. Chris is able to put more and more time into his vehicle-rental business - and telling Maria not to work so many hours managing the halfway house.
“May I remind you that you are the dog, and have no formal authority in this house?”
Tracy did not wait until her husband died to get a dog. We now have Maggie, a rescued small white terrier mix. I have nothing further to say.
“Are You Talking to Me or to Yourself?”
As we age, more of our conversations begin - or end - this way. They often continue with Tracy’s preferred pronouns: “It,” “they,” “she,” without clear antecedents. David seldom knows whom she is talking about. Similarly, “Amy” or “Sue” could mean many people. She described a hip replacement while gesturing to her shoulder. She tells lots of such stories, because she continues to be prayer central, keeping up on everyone’s medical, job, and relationship needs. Jonathan and Ben understand her, because they grew up with it and do the same. If she says “left” when she means “right”, they get it without missing a beat. Heidi and David insist none are speaking English. Ben’s wife Jen is more diplomatic, but this can’t last - she has to break sometime. Kyle wisely won’t say.
“The Cats Still Won’t Come Out”
Ben and Jen moved from Houston to New Hampshire, now in a Millyard apartment overlooking the Merrimack. Jen is now one of the librarians in Goffstown, giving Tracy even more excuse to go there. Jen runs a lot of programs - tomorrow it’s wolves and last week it was Taiwanese cooking. Ben is at Events United, which sets up festivals, graduations, conventions, and performances all over the country. He is one of the few Oldheads, learning how to corral young tech wizards into a final production.
Puffins!
We feared we would have to travel well up the coast, perhaps even to Canada to reliably see puffins. Not so. In August we caught what may have been the best day at Eastern Egg Rock off the coast of Boothbay Harbor. Tracy viewed as many puffins as she could possible want that morning. The ocean still calls to Tracy, as it does Kyle, who is still living in Duxbury. He works selling Orkin plans (rather than be the guy crawling around under the house. Good choice.) Unsurprisingly, he is quite good at it, top salesperson in Northern New England already, though his heart is still in photography - people, dogs, ocean or some combination thereof.
“We Grow Too Soon Old and Too Late Smart”
Tracy and David went to the William and Mary 50th to see many friends and continue to refuse to give money to the college. We drove down by a very coastal route, taking the ferries at New London and Cape May, and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. We will be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary this coming year, and are still learning things that would have helped us understand each other. Better late than never. Tracy still takes on too many new tasks, David still stares out windows and thinks or writes about things. He also occasionally injures himself loading donated food onto trucks.
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