Syracuse - A Less than Complete Recap

It Started With a Surgery
The matriarch and her petite Asian helper sneaked into the hospital, past security and up to the third floor.  I, of course, was stopped and interrogated before finally receiving a name tag, which later gave me great leeway to roam the halls and buy muffins from the cafe un-pestered.  I lorded it over the helper, pointing at it and mocking her for being stuck, muffin-less, in the room.

The matriarch was in rare form, ladling out sass and vinegar to every nurse in reach.  When asked to spell her name and give her date of birth for the twenty-sixth time, she almost lost it.  We checked into the hospital at six am and the surgery swiftly arrived ten hours later.

Tea, tea and more tea.  That was all the matriarch seemed to care about before, after and possibly during the surgery.  She couldn't have any and it set her on edge.  Within minutes of arriving at her room, post-cutting, her head was on a swivel looking for her cuppa.

When it was time to leave at six pm, she was not having any delays.  She came close to pulling out the IV herself, having Googled all about in the preceding days.  A friendly nurse jumped to the task and we were outta there, never to return again hopefully.

 Within days we were bent over strawberry plants in Baldwinsville.

We picked five cups worth.

Enough for jam.

And plenty for a few rounds of strawberry shortcake.

Every other day we went for ice cream at Gannons or loaded up on groceries at Wegmans.

I was excited to visit the co-op near Westcott street to get local milk.  I turned the cream from this one into both butter and whipped cream.

There were lots of desserts made, including this cherry pie.  Thida and Sal made a banana cake that was gone within hours and even the strange idea of a blueberry pie with cardamom worked.

Mach arrived just in time for the infamous Harvard St bump-and-run.  She went into a rage, urging me to get that $$%$%$$$$ but with the bumper dragging there was no chase to be made.  It was fixed up like new within days.

I made an unrelated fix, snuffing out a rattle that had haunted for years.  Turns out, a trunk strut was vibrating and rubbing against the bottom of a speaker.  So, with a tube of cardboard and some masking tape, I put an end to it.

Geppie and I played a lot of golf.  He improved leaps and bounds this summer, hitting his irons better than ever.

A few times we brought along the helper to caddy.

We ate with Sal's breakfast crew every morning, swapping stories and joking around.  They are a fun bunch.  On off days we ate on our own, like at Green Lakes.

My favorite was always snoozing nearby.

We shared some tender moments.

I got a lot closer with Shakey this trip, he's mellowed a bit and is more affectionate.

Yes, it's true, I was caught napping from time to time.  In this case, I was just resting my eyes while watching tv.  As evidence, I point out the remote in my hand, still gripped tightly.

We saw three plays, visiting Cortland, Auburn and Ithaca in the process.  

We saw Gypsy at the Hangar theater.

At Cortland Rep, we saw an Agatha Christie mystery and in Auburn we saw something more modern, which took place in a Florida trailer park.

I turned Peter onto a Netflix series called "Hell on Wheels" and he invited us over for whiskey and cigars to watch the finale.  I asked Dodo if she knew what she was doing and she replied so confidently.

She appeared to be knowledgeable about cigars.....

Until she clipped her finger while cutting the end off.

We took a run along the eastern edge of Cayuga lake and visited two wineries.  This one, called Heart & Hands is a mom and pop affair.

Their vines are in their front and back yards.

At the slightly larger Treleaven winery, these vines over the front door were for show.  Their real vines covered acres.

Their output was much higher, as you can imagine.

These two seemed to be confused about how a wine tasting works, they chomped fistfuls of the accompanying snacks and only occasionally sipped the wine.  Overall, we got three bottles and brought them back to Singapore with us.  

Gep, the Dodo and I took a side trip to Toronto, via Buffalo, where we stopped at Lanova.  They're famous for their wings but I couldn't get enough of the pepperoni pizza. You cannot get good pizza in Singapore.

We stayed in a two bedroom apartment on the west side of town, in between King and Queen streets.  We had a nice view from the balcony.

None of us had much of an agenda.  We strolled, people-watched, drank tons of coffee and nice Canadian beer, ate Haggis at a Scottish pub and shopped.  The city has changed a lot since I spent a few years there in the early nineties.  Lots of new high-rise apartments.

The stogie fans were happy to puff on Cubans.  The most interesting part of the trip involved a "elder rescue."  An old Chinese lady handed me a cardboard sign while we were walking through a park that said "If you are reading this, this lady is lost, please call such and such a number."  So, we called and waited.  Then a few hours passed and we called again.  Gep and I joked that the kids must have left her there on purpose.  The old lady looked nervous and spoke almost no English.  Good thing the Dodo was there to chat her up.  Finally, after three hours, the son showed up.  I was shocked because he looked to be in his sixties himself.  He thanked us profusely but we never did get an explanation.