It has been many years since I have stayed 7 nights in Sudbury. I was born there, living at home until age 22, when I married Deb and we moved to Windsor to attend university. We used to come home for about six weeks in the summer, staying mostly at the family camp on Lake Penage. But since the camp was sold many years go, we have only been back for shorter visits, to Sudbury itself at the family home.
The occasion this time was to spend time with Mom, helping her to go through Dad's belongings. Most went to charity, though I came home with a few nice shirts, a cozy new bathrobe, a few books and records, and a sport jacket. Mom is doing pretty well, though I doubt she has had much time to process Dad's passing. Cards and flowers and visitors have kept her occupied. Her sister will come and visit her at the end of April. Mom will be 95 in one month, and still climbs three flights of stairs at home and does laundry, some cooking, and many other things. We took her grocery shopping one day (she still insists on buying her own food), and to church for a mass that was said in my father's name.
Mom lives in the upstairs of a large 3-unit apartment building which she owns. My brother Steve and his wife and daughter live below her. The basement apartment has been a bar and TV room for a long time now. Steve and his wife went for a week long cruise from Miami, so we came up north to stay with mom. The weather was quite beastly a few days, so it was mostly an inside visit. I read, we watched a lot of TV, went through Dad's things, looked at old family photos, and just talked. Mom and Deb are both early risers, so they had conversations in the morning while I slept on. A few days were quite nice, and Deb and I managed some hilly walks, mostly to a vegan cafe and bakery.
The household has a few channels that we don't buy, so we were able to catch up on some Star Trek series, and watch all 4 new Doctor Who specials, starring David Tenant and Catherine Tate. there are in the first 3 specials; the 4th one stars the newest Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa. While all four episodes were fun, they were pretty much even in quality, with nothing too exceptional. It was nice to see Mel Bush back in action. She was a companion to two much earlier doctors, and could scream mightily on command.
We watched the first episode of Picard, a series about the retired Star Fleet admiral. it seems like he will soon be back in action. We will likely subscribe to Paramount for a few months in order to watch the rest. And we have now seen six episodes of Star Trek Discovery, finding it worth a look, too. I watched the first two episodes on our flight to and from New Orleans last month, rewatching them on Mom's giant screen so Deb could see them, too. We also watched the first episode of the most recent Lost In Space series, from 2018. It looks promising, but as it is on Disney, we will not be seeing more until another visit to Sudbury.
And finally we were able to watch Dune, the first half of the epic film directed by Denis Villeneuve, from 2021. The director and writer were obviously heavily influenced by the exploits of T. E. Lawrence, and the film by David Lean. The movie ends just as Jessica and Paul are being tried by the Fremen, to see whether they will live or die. It is a good film, but not a great one. Of course there is a lot of exposition, and comes pretty close to echoing Herbert's great SF novel. But everything is so compressed that it is difficult to get a sense of epic. Perhaps watching both halves together would be better, but even with this film we had to break it up over two evenings. Fans of Herbert shouldn't have too much to complain about, and there is some hope that the second book might be filmed, too. Now we just have to try and see Dune Part Two.
We have done so much travelling lately, especially driving. Our New Orleans road trip in late March was followed by a long day trip to Ohio for the eclipse. Then came Sudbury, which is 470 miles each way. So for now we are done with major trips. It's been interesting trying to maintain a full piano program during this time. Today's practice has been a bit mechanical.
I'll finish up with another picture of Dad....
Mapman Mike
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