greg, chanda and i drove out to montauk to check on my parents' house and to sign a new lease for the year with the current tenants.
chanda hadn't been out since my dad's funeral in may of 2016. it makes me feel sad to write that, as for years we made seasonal pilgrimages to see them. in the summer we would go and spend time at the beach, in autumn we would go apple picking, in winter we had christmas together, and in february we always went out for greg's birthday. in between we would always find time to pop out for a night or two . .
the bittersweet vine at the beach overlook,
lunch at the health food store,
beautiful ditch plains . .
where some surfers were out catching the waves,
and where we found an entire hotel had disappeared and had been replaced with beach grass. usually it's always the other way around!
please keep off the dune!
in the evening we met a friend whom we hadn't seen in years at a restauarant called the point. it was really fun to catch up and share what our children are busy doing. above is his instagram pic of the selfie we took.
here we're having breakfast this morning at the health food store where i saw our neighbor with his home health aide, mila. she once had helped me with my mom and dad. she's very sweet and i find it amusing and interesting that she's now taking care of our elderly friend next door. she kind of ran away from helping me. my mom and dad were too much for her to handle, and it was also a very stressful time in my relationship with them (they were in denial that they needed any help and were giving me--and mila--a very difficult time). this was about two and a half years ago. i'm glad that i've seen her again and had a chance to talk with her and exchange phone numbers.
chanda is working on a pair of fingerless gloves to match her hat.
the mess that is the basement floor of my parents' house!
in order for the current tenants to be upstairs, we emptied closets and drawers and moved furniture downstairs: the dining room table and chairs, the small kitchen snack table and kitchen chairs, the king size bed from the bedroom, and both twin beds from the second bedroom.
this has always been my favorite room in the house: my mom's sewing room.
greg put up a new smoke detector for me.
unfortunately, everything is a bit moldy. i don't think they ran the dehumidifier during the summer like they said they did. it's very worrisome and i need to figure out a game plan for next summer.
a bookshelf with my redwood bear which i brought back home with me.
one last visit to the beach before going home: hotel beach in town.
it was so cold!! i think it was in the upper 20's this morning and we are definitely not accustomed to it. in the past few years, winter doesn't usually arrive until december or even january.
it was also extremely windy.
we had lunch in amagansett at the chutney company. it's located in the town square.
ordering our dosa sandwiches which are made with chickpea flour.
this picture was taken right after we had finished cleaning up an entire carton of soup that i had spilled. fortunately, i was able to scrape it all off the table and back into the carton without spilling any on the floor, and we were given a new soup free of charge. greg's expression immediately after i spilled it was so funny. he just heaved a big sigh and stared at the mess without any loud exclamation. chanda was quick at getting me napkins to wipe it up, and then he replaced the messy trays with clean ones . . and we were good to finally eat our lunch! as you can see, we are eating inside. it's not often i've done that. usually it's always warm enough when i'm there to eat outside.
the lovely amagansett square . .
we used to like to shop at some of the stores when they had sales after the summer crowds had gone. unfortunately, all the stores we liked have left and been replaced with different stores that don't interest us as much (much too pricey!).
our last stop before the last leg home was the starbucks in bridgehampton.
here i ran into an old friend from my karate school days. we hadn't seen each other in . . twenty years or so. i happened to be leaning against the counter you see on the left in the pic above, waiting for my coffee, and when i looked up i saw a familiar face. it took me a minute to remember her name, but i managed it while yelling hello and how are you. it's been quite the weekend for running into old acquaintances.
