I Miss Henry

The Running Of The Balls

Saturday night my husband and I sat out on the balcony of our Calgary condo, waiting to watch white balls wend their way woozily by on the water. Weally!

A couple of weeks ago, we were riding our bikes through Prince's Island Park when we passed a bunch of people blowing up these big white balls. Once they were inflated, they were tossed into the river. Didn't think much about it.



But walking home from dinner this weekend, we passed a lot of people standing by the water with cameras. My husband asked what was going on. A woman told us five hundred of those white balls were about to be released into the river. Two balls were out in front of us, hung up on some rocks. But looking up river, we saw nothing. We decided to go home, pour some wine and watch from the balcony.

More people gathered below by the water's edge. We drank our wine as daylight slowly faded. "Those balls are blinking," my husband said. I looked and dog-gone it if he wasn't right. The two balls hung up on the rocks were blinking. It was kind of creepy if you want to know the truth. Being a NYer, of course I assumed it was somehow connected to Al-Qaeda. But they just continued innocently blinking down there in the dark water.

 About an hour later, The Running of the Balls began! Glowing orbs of different colors drifted by. I can't say that it was a spectacular sight from our elevated perch, but it was interesting. When the last ball floated by, onlookers followed along the bank. Occasionally we'd see a person walking along carrying one of them. Next day I did a google search and found some stunning pictures:


Photograph by: Ted Rhodes, Calgary Herald


Photograph by: Ted Rhodes, Calgary Herald

I also read that the event was given a far more poetic name than my "The Running of the Balls":

From: http://www.calgary.ca/docgallery/bu/recreation/arts_and_culture/public_art/celebration_of_the_bow_river/River_light_finalevent.pdf

RIVER OF LIGHT

This Saturday night at 9:30 p.m., 500 illuminated spheres will be launched by local volunteers along the Bow River... ...to create a large-scale dynamic lighting installation. The artist of this installation is U.K-based Creatmosphere, founded by artist Laurent Louder. They are using geographic, geological and environmental observation, public participation and technology to achieve a spectacular and memorable experience on the Bow River.


Photograph by: Ted Rhodes, Calgary Herald

I took a stroll Sunday afternoon down to the river to see if perhaps all the balls were corralled somewhere for one last look. But all I found was one lonely ball still hung up on the rocks:


Photo by Caryl Zimmerman

Our apartment building is in the back there, looking down on this poor pathetic, malfunctioning ball (It blinked, remember? Wasn't supposed to). Perhaps with a bit of persuasion (and a lot more wine) I can convince my husband to swim out and get it for me. I mean, if it doesn't explode first.

More gorgeous photos here.

Rod Stewart "Losing You"

I forgot what a great song this is until my Mom took me to see a Rod Stewart Tribute band (in photo above). By the way, that sounds lame, but it was really entertaining.

And The House Cried

A couple of weeks ago, while I was still on Long Island, I got a phone call, interrupting lunch with Mom, my sister and my friend. It was Greg.

"Hi. Listen to this..."

I listened but heard only silence.

"Did you hear that?" he asked me.

"It's quiet," I told him.

"The moving van just pulled away. I thought maybe you could hear it. Today's a sad day."

I thought he was joking. Greg's been looking forward to being done with that house in Texas for a long time. We had some tough times there. When we were looking to buy a house, the schools in that area had high rankings. But as new neighborhoods spread out around us and families from New Orleans moved in after Hurricane Katrina, our schools became overcrowded. Rankings declined. Chaos increased. It took its toll on our sons.

"Are you being sarcastic?"I asked him.

"No! 14 years here, lots of memories. Now all the rooms are empty."

That was sweet. Though we always knew we wouldn't live there forever, there are many things we'll miss about the neighborhood. The people, of course. The pond where Greg and boys fished. The soccer fields. Lots and lots of time spent on those soccer fields where many lifetime friendships were created.

We talked a little more and I asked him to take a few pictures before he left the house for good. After we hung up and I shared our conversation with Mom, Cathy and Ileana, we were all surprised that he was feeling so nostalgic.

"Well, in Texas they say that Greg's heart grew three sizes that day!"

Next morning, I was awakened by my phone ringing. Greg again.

"I don't even know why I'm calling," he said, "except that I just need someone to talk to."

He explained that on a whim, he decided to walk through the house one last time that morning before catching a plane to Canada. When he opened the door, it took him a moment to process what he was seeing. The hardwood floor in the living room was a puddle. Water rained down from the second floor through a hole in the ceiling.

He ran upstairs and found the tank to the master bathroom toilet cracked. He shut off the water and ran next door to borrow a mop. All of our cleaning supplies were on a highway somewhere in the moving van. Then he cancelled his flight.

"I can't wait til this mother @#$% house is sold and behind us!!" he said to me. "It's like it's cursed!!"

What a difference a day makes. Well, the house is sold now. Despite the fact that our realtor walked into the house with a client in tow and found a gaping hole in the living room ceiling (shoulda called us first-ha!), we were able to sell the house to someone else for a reasonable price.

Good memories intertwined with bad memories. If the walls could talk. Hm! They'd probably say, "So long, suckers!"

God help the new owners.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals Live at Infinity Hall on 2010-01-20

Circle Line Tour Around Manhattan

Yesterday my husband, my sister and I rode the train into the city to take the Circle Line tour of Manhattan on the Hudson River. I took the tour once on a class trip in elementary school and Cathy has been on it somewhere along the way, but it was the first time for Greg.


(Promotional photo I lifted from somewhere. The rest of the photos are mine.)

There are a variety of tours you can take with Circle Line. One of them goes all the way around the island. It's a 3 hour tour and since I think we all learned a lesson from Gilligan's Island (and I didn't have a trunk full of clothes as the castaways apparently did), we opted for the 2 hour one.

The ride was very relaxing and informative. We were treated to stunning views of the city, The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and 3 famous bridges: The Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg.



My family has deep roots in this New York City soil. None of us ever lived in Manhattan, though my Mom once worked there and my parents grew up in its Burroughs (Queens and the Bronx). We "kids" have trampled its streets throughout the years on various outings, driving in or taking to train from Long Island where I grew up.

My sister's neighbor, a man her kids called Uncle Ed, died in one of the towers on 9/11. The smoke from its fires wafted to their house in Nassau county and when I finally got through to her on the phone my sister said it smelled "like death." To quote Forrest Gump, that's about all I want to say about that day. But it's a deep and permanent scar on the landscape of NYC and on the hearts of those who experienced it. It binds us still.

My husband's job may take me away to live in places far from here, but I'll always be a New Yorker. I love this city.




Times Square


A McDonald's in the theater district






Brooklyn Bridge


Blue tarp and cranes mark where the Twin Towers once stood.

An American flag hangs from one of the cranes

The city that doesn't sleep

Henry Update

Baby Henry. He's all grown up now.

Got this e-mail from Mom:

"Well, we had our visit to Nancy and Dick. Henry loved being out in the country (on his leash) and smelling all the animals - chipmunks, etc. Didn't seem too fazed by the horses. But, oh, the cats! I kept him up in my room when we were indoors but a few times Nancy suggested letting him loose to see what happened. Of course, he barked and chased the cats! (I don't think Dick was too happy but he was too polite to say anything.) He whined, too, and didn't like being alone. So...I doubt if Henry will get a return invitation even though he wasn't really terrible.

On the ferry, he was the perfect dog! Little children would stop and ask if they could pet him and he was very good. I was complimented on a well behaved dog, several people commented that they had or had had a dachshund. He only barked once and that was because another dog barked.

When I had all the American Legion ladies for lunch a week ago, he was very popular. I have people asking me 'How is Henry doing?'

Love, Mom"

Jasper National Park, Canada

I had this weird dream that Greg and I drove to a magical land where it snowed in July; where elk, deer, mountain goats, big horn sheep, a wolf and THREE bears walked past our car; a sign nonchalantly directed us to Alaska and then right before I woke up, we walked on a glacier.

Wait a minute. That wasn't a dream, that was our weekend!

July 1st is Canada Day, a national holiday. Greg had the day off and since most Canadians took off Friday to make it a long weekend, he decided to do the same.

On Thursday we drove 248 miles to Jasper National Park, stopping along the way to enjoy the sights. I read that it's the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies and that our route along The Icefield Parkway would take us past 100 glaciers and lots of wildlife.



During one of our stops, we followed a path up a mountain which lead to a breathtaking view of one of those 100 glaciers. The further up we went the colder it got. We passed patches of snow while flurries danced around our heads. The temperatures were in the low 40's. We never saw nuttin' like that in all our summers in Houston!



Wildlife was easier to spot than we expected. We just had to follow the direction of all the cameras aimed out of all the windows of the vehicles pulled over on the highway. Greg learned the routine quickly. I yelled, "sighting!" and he eased the car on to the shoulder behind the other cars. I felt like wildlife paparazzi.



We spent two nights just outside of Jasper and did as much as we could do in three days. We plan to go back and have put it on our mental list of "Must Do's" when company visits. It's an amazing place.