Saturday Evening Thoughts

I am safely arrived in Charlottesville after an uneventful drive with incredibly no delays on the Interstate. Surprisingly, there is still not that much color in the leaves since the month of October was warmer than usually. Much to my surprise, UVA managed to beat Wake Forest in the home football game today, which must have been great: perfect weather and UVA pulling it out. Meanwhile the Montepelier Races were held today at Montpelier, home of James Madison. I did not go, but my sister said it was gorgeous. The races - which include steeplechase and flat track events - were started many decades ago by Marion DuPont Scott, who was an heir to the DuPont fortune and also married to classic era film star Randolph Scott. I understand that some of the local vineyards, including Barboursville (my favorite) had displays at the races.

Before driving up, I went by the doctor's office and was put on a steroid that will hopefully rid me of my itching and the hive like welts. At this point, all test indicate that I do not have the serious blood disease first suspected. Rather, it is thought to be some allergic reaction combined with extreme stress: (1) the divorce war - more hearings are set for next Friday morning, including on my motion to set aside the interim property settlement opinion due to the judge's anti-gay bias - and (2) worry about the firm cash flow with the residential real estate business near dead except for investor clients. In short, I guess I will be blogging for a while longer.

On the way up, I spoke with my oldest daughter for the the first time in many months (I wanted to tell her the further medical news) and it was very friendly and, needless to say, I am VERY happy. I will be seeing my younger daughter tomorrow when I pass through Richmond on the way back to Norfolk. I do not think either of them know how much talking to them lights up my day.

I will post more later tonight after my mom goes to bed. For now, I wanted to post the above thoughts and also to display the photo set out above. It is a view looking across the lake from our family summer home on Brantingham Lake in the Adirondack Mountains in Northern New York State. Those who have read early posts about me growing up know how much the summer house and my summer friends meant to me. It was one place I excelled in water sports - slalom water skiing, swimming and sailing - and did not get mocked for being a non-athlete in football, etc. My brother was up at the camp - the local terminology - in October and took some great photos that he downloaded to my mom's computer. (When my lap top died a few months ago, I lost hundreds of photos that had not been backed up to another hard drive).