Herald Angel

We got the holiday season off to a great start with our now traditional trip to New England for Thanksgiving. What a treat to go to the Minichs on Thursday for dinner, have a great Hart family hike on Friday, head to Boston for the annual UM-OSU game at a sports bar with Pete and then head down to Providence for a few days with the Cruzes. We’re lucky to have such cool and warm families.

We’ll meet Scott and Janet in Miami Beach again this year and then head back to Sarasota for Christmas. Travel plans beyond that are up in the air (so to speak) as I write.

I see that there are still some openings on the calendar, so if you want to make a return visit, or get your picture up on the wall, make your reservations soon.

We want to wish all of our dear friends in Ann Arbor, Sarasota, and scattered around the globe and our families – nuclear and extended – joy, safety, health and peace. We are so fortunate to have all of you in our lives.

Click here for this year’s Jib Jab HO HO HO!!!

We met Scott and Janet Erickson in Miami for the holidays had a great time, and ended up in Sarasota to kick of guest season. And what a season it was! Is there such a thing as a quadfecta? If so, we hit a full  Providence quadfecta with visits from George and Pam, Ethan, Julie and Nate, Phoebe and Joel and Jes. We also had the Brian Hart family, John, T, Dan and Laura and Kristin and Kevin on the Hart side. Walt and Bronwyn came, along with god-daughter Lea Kone to round out the family members. Beth Clarke came for the Oscar party (yes, we won the Oscar contest) and we did well from Ann Arbor too. Not only did George Fahmie and Judith Cawhorn visit, but our dear friends John and Ginger Gajar closed on a place about 20 minutes away. Seems to me that, though we’ve come to Florida, we are bringing our homeboys and girls with us and we couldn’t be happier about it!

The icing on the cake has been Billy and Becky Scott coming down. Along with Keith and Anna Townsend we now have a Maine community and, better yet, a band! Watermelon Wine, our country roots band, actually had – among other gigs – a regular Friday night job at Spanky’s Restaurant. It’s hard to convey how much fun we had playing both tunes from the old Appalachian days and new stuff as well.  Ellie still sat in at the Monday night blues jam at the 5-O Club and we enjoyed catching Skip Eaton play whenever we could. Music is a huge part of our lives in Florida. If you haven’t been down to see us – or even if you have – reserve your time on the calendar to the right of this page – C’mon down!

It’s hard to believe we’re nearing the end of another year! I guess time flies when you’re old.

2014 started out with the sad loss of my sister, Barby (see post below). We are still waiting to hear what discoveries have come from the donation of her brain to UC Davis but we hope that doing this will in some way help all of us gain more insight into autism – its causes and its treatments. The PBS series on the brain that will mention her is due to be aired in April; we are all curious to see it.

Last winter in Sarasota deepened our connections down here. Listening to Skip Eaton and Al Fuller at the 5 O’clock, Ellie’s yoga class and Meditation Group, birding, the Sunday night drum circle – life is rich and we’re starting to make real friends, especially Skip and Mary. Of course we love our guests, and we got a pretty good group down here last year – John and Ginger, Paul and Wendy, Dorothy and Bill, Mark and Marty and Scott and Janet from Ann Arbor and we got Brian Hart’s family and Gary and Debbie and then Lea Kone, from upstate New York. Who am I forgetting? Please leave a comment below. And, if you’d like to make the list next year, please reserve your time on the calendar to the right of this post.

We had two fantastic trips last year (see posts below) to largely Spanish-speaking areas, so Ellie worked on Spanish and joined Johanna’s kitchen class in Ann Arbor. Although this year was a wash-out as far as the boat was concerned (long story – but can you say “blown head gasket”?) we still had a wonderful summer, hanging out with friends, going to Conditioning for Life Class (owe it all to Dan), and playing with the band for ellie and golf for Kevin. Kevin really enjoyed Radrick Farms this year and is swinging as well as ever. Ellie joined forces with bandmate, Dave Solo, and they formed a duo that played several times and even cut a CD in Mark Hauptschein’s studio (copies available on request). We also had a nice little trip to Boulder to see Patience and my cousin Anna. Boulder is cool and we plan to go back when it isn’t also freezing.

As for this winter in Sarasota, we’re pleased that John and Ginger will be renting nearby for three months and our old friend and music pal, Bill Scott, bought a place in Ellenton. We are already in rehearsal with Kevin playing U-Bass (a trick we picked up from Dave Solo), Ellie on vocals and percussion and Bill playing pretty much everything else and running the show.

Here is wishing all of our friends and family great happiness for the holidays and throughout 2015. Come and see us in Sarasota (November through April) or in Ann Arbor (May through October). Merry Christmas!