Another Ordinary Day in May

Last year’s ordinary day in May was followed by a significantly extraordinary one. I don’t anticipate that this one will be so eclipsed.

Chris with Emma and Kelsey

The most noteworthy thing about today in Ft. Harrington was that our longtime UPS delivery guy, Chris, delivered his last package to us. His “last package” as in his last delivery, period, to anybody. He is retiring, and saved his last package (a chaise frame, in the cardboard box) for Ft. Harrington. The dogs love him, and vice versa, clearly.

The second most noteworthy thing about today in Ft. Harrington is that our garden roses have started blooming:

But they were preceded by the wild ones – a strain of pink vine roses that permeates this valley in the Santa Cruz Mountains. They bloom only once a year, in May, but when they do, they festoon the whole valley in a lovely extravagance. Here’s one of those wild vines, one next to our largest shed :

After sunset, when yard work was no longer on my plate, I scanned a few photos from the brown box. I’m going at it in a brute-force order: from the top of the pile in the box on down toward the bottom. Adam wants to go through the box’s contents, and when he does, maybe we’ll come up with a more logical order. But, for the time being, it’s pretty much random:

Adam on the day of his 6^th grade graduation, 1982.

Sherwood and Doug applauding Adam’s high school graduation.

Sherwood and Mary Marsh, Australia, 1986.

Mary Marsh (nee Porter) was one of the clients on the ASP’s Australia astronomy tour for Halley’s Comet in 1986, and she and I hit it off pretty well. This photo is from the end of the tour, in Cairns. Mary’s stepfather was Rogers Hornsby, a Hall of Fame baseball player, and a notorious curmudgeon. Mary transcribed his last two books from his spoken words, and, after the Australia tour, sent me a couple of tokens from her collection:

Good luck, Chris! And bless you, Mary, wherever you are.