Catching Up (Again)

Last week I made my annual payment to my web host, which prompted a wild notion: “Hey, why not actually post some content to that site you’re paying for?” So here I am after two months of blog-neglect to bring you, the hypothetical reader, up to speed.

Probably the most significant development since my last post is that we’re now down to a three-person household, with Jason in his third year at UVA and Scott now well into his Freshman year at Roanoke College. It’s taken some time to get used to not having the house filled with the sound of piano music at all hours of the day, or the rapid-fire thuds of Scott running up and down the stairs. Our loss is Roanoke’s gain, though, as Scott’s joined the jazz ensemble. Here they are at the Family Weekend concert. That’s Scott on the left at the grand piano.

Shortly after we dropped off Scott for school, our neighbor introduced a little drama by having nearly every tree in his yard cut down. I’m not sure who he hired, but if they had any previous experience working with trees, I’d be shocked. The whole process took a couple of weeks, and not once did they top off a tree; their technique involved pulling on them with a rope tied to a bobcat and sawing away with chainsaws too small for the job — they wrecked at least three of them we know of — to bring whole trees down from their full height, in some cases 60 feet or taller. In the process, they managed to smash the neighbor’s fence on all three sides of the yard but at least they missed the guy’s house, and more importantly (?) escaped with their lives, though at various points I wouldn’t have bet any money on it. Anyway now the neighbor’s got the tree-free back yard he apparently desired, with a good start on a carpet of green grass he’ll never be around to cut, so…yay?

An up side to having Scott in Roanoke is we’re getting to see a lot more of the mountains lately. At one point, we stayed at an Air BnB outside of Lexington that afforded some great views, like this one from the front driveway.

Jason’s really enjoying his studies at UVA now that he’s hip deep in advanced Engineering classes dealing with subjects where even the course names hurt my head. It’s all to do with aeronautics, and he likes to joke that the only class that’s giving him any trouble has to do with computers, because “it’s not rocket science.” He was home over the Labor Day weekend to defend his title as state chess champion, but in the end he fell to Grandmaster Erenberg. Not that he seemed particularly upset about it; I get the impression he enjoyed just catching up with GM Erenberg. Way back in 2014 when Jason was just getting seriously into the game, he played a simul against the GM and at a later date Mr Erenberg was nice enough to meet with him and offer encouragement. In a very real sense, he’s been a sort of model for Jason in that he’s managed to fit an impressive chess career in around an equally impressive professional career doing something else entirely. Jason’s hoping to do the same.

I know Grace misses having her brothers around, but we’re enjoying our time with her before we enter into full “empty nester” territory. We’ve tried to find time for art projects, she’s coming along very nicely on the piano and she’s taken on a job teaching art and science once a week to a young girl via Zoom, in an arrangement they’re both having fun with.

We’re looking forward to picking up the boys for Thanksgiving and the Masters Tournament in Charlotte, NC later this month, and I guess that pretty much catches things up. With that, and a promise to try and keep the posts coming on a more regular basis, I’ll sign off.