After a rough journey up from Virginia, I am now back in my original home town of Natick, Mass., for my mother's eighty-fifth birthday celebration. I have taken just about everything I need which is portable and have set them up in a cozy little room, where Pyracantha Studios and Electron Blue are now on "field outpost" status. I've got some of my calculus books (not the monumental Anton, which was too heavy to bring) and some art materials, in case I get a chance to make art. I also have with me as many gadgets as I could pack, including my mini sound system and of course SoyMac the laptop. This is the first Electron entry I am writing on SoyMac rather than on the stricken Fravashi or my main home system.

I've got good reading material and plenty of canned espresso that is, Starbucks Original (not "lite") Doubleshots. I also brought with me "juice boxes" of soymilk. Now you know what I can't live without.

We already had one family dinner at a nice restaurant in Newton, Mass. where my mother received flowers and a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. When we got home, I gave her the first of my presents, a bag full of Trader Joe's goodies and a birthday card signed not only by me but by many of my Trader Joe's co-workers, including the "captain" (manager) and "first mate" (assistant manager).

This whole week will be devoted mostly to the Birthday Girl, but I will get some visiting in on my own, when I make my accustomed trip to Cambridge, my old Harvard habitat. More family festivities will occur. We should all get to be eighty-five and be as distinguished as my mother.

Posted at 12:01 am | link