AMANDA

Here’s a picture of me with my new granddaughter Amanda.





Here’s Liz and me with Amanda.



And here’s Jane and Scott with Amanda.



I never thought I’d be a grandfather.

An Update

What a spring and summer – there have been at least four big changes in my life.

First, since last December I have been on a trajectory towards getting dental implants for my upper teeth. The first major step in this process was the extraction of the remains of my upper teeth in April. The most recent step was the elevation a week ago of a sinus on my right side along with two implants. In a little more than a week, I’m scheduled to have the sinus elevated on the other side and three more implants. While all is healing, I cannot wear the denture, so that affects what I can eat.

Second, on April 26 my mother died at age 90. Because my brother Curtis died in September 2003, I am the sole executor. Liz and I have assumed the responsibility of emptying the house of my mother’s possessions and overseeing the distribution of the contents to her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. My nephew Brian and his wife Tina are buying the house and that simplifies the process of preparing for the formal sale. But it’s still a lot of work and we have spent more of our days this summer cleaning out the house than we have spent at our Heart Lake cottage.

Third, about May 18, which coincidentally was the 279th anniversary of the first publication of the Dunciad, I decided to publish my Master’s Essay on the Dunciad on the web. That project has grown into something larger that I initially anticipated, and it occupies a good deal of my time and intellectual energy. Still, the work on the house, the dental procedures, and the frequent trips back and forth between New York and Heart Lake have meant that I have less time to spend on that project than I wish I did.

Fourth, and most exciting, our daughter Jane and her husband Scott have just adopted a baby girl. Amanda Elizabeth was born a month ago in Texas. Jane and Scott went to Texas and picked her up when she was two weeks old. Five days later Liz and I met them at the airport in Hartford Connecticut and spent an hour with Amanda and her parents. Then Jane and Scott drove Amanda to their home in Vermont and we drove to Heart Lake.

I began this blog last October in part because of the interesting things that are going on in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion generally. At the time I had been reading blogs pretty regularly, following developments and occasionally commenting. I kept this up until I began the Dunciad project at which point I slacked off a little in my attention to the blogosphere. Then for about the past six weeks I’ve been thoroughly engaged and have had scant time for reading blogs and almost no time for blogging myself. This post for example, slight as it is, has taken me a week of snatched time to write.

But I sense that I’ll be getting back into the swing of things again as the days and weeks go on.