Ben's Graduation report.

Here's my follow up report on Ben's graduation. It was a lovely dinner in a new local restaurant. We had an intimate room perfect for our group of about a dozen. Though the waiter turned up the jazz for our benefit, the whooping and hollering from a soccer team at the bar down stairs lent a "festive" air to dinner. So did one of the local street fellows who joined our group while we were taking photos outside. Seems he had trained a bird to perch on his shoulder. Here is a photo of Ben and his girlfriend, Kaitlin, at dinner. Also a picture of the fellow with the bird.



Ben and I leave for the coast of Massachusetts tomorrow. We meet Carol's family and long time boyfriend, John, to celebrate a life and spread her ashes on the Atlantic (Carol, Ben's mom and my former wife, died in April). We hope to eat lobster sitting on lobster pots in the back of some fish shack that hovers precariously on rocks over the bay, in her honor. Carol and John vacationed in Rockport every summer. She had hoped to eventually live there.

The next day, I leave on my yearly adventure, sailing up the coast of Maine with my good friend Roger. We depart from Gloucester (right next to Rockport, and the site of the movie "the Perfect Storm"). Roger and I deliver the boat (a 34 ft. sail boat that sleeps 5) to it's summer home in Rockland, Maine, for it's owner, Bob. This will be my sixth year. Roger captains and I crew. If I make it back alive, I'll report on the trip. That's me heroically steering the boat through a thick rainy fog.



I'll be away from the blog until a week from Tuesday, so behave while I'm gone.