Stages, Phases, and Passings..

Pausing, and moving on..

First, many thanks to all the readers and friends who expressed condolences regarding MFO’s Mother’s passing. We appreciated the thoughts and sympathy. While of course we will miss her we are pleased she is at peace, and will remain present in our memories. We should all be so fortunate to have such a full and long life.


MFO and I have altered plans of our holiday annual driving circle tour of the Midwest, and will be going counterclockwise this year. We will be leaving here Sunday and going VFR direct to Wisconsin, take care of things there as best we can, and then go south to St. Louis for Christmas with the FOJ’s. It seems a little tougher to be dealing with death in the season where Christians celebrate a special beginning of life, but such are stages and phases. We will all lift a glass to Dorothy and the rest of the family members of all the flutters that are not with us. It does give one pause for thought that one has achieved the elder status of the clan..

I will of course be taking the little brown notebook and the trusty Canon on the trip, looking for opportunities to record the passing scene, and ever on the outlook for dining opportunities. We may do a breakfast at the Hungry Peddler in Onalaska, or maybe the place we found in La Crosse, and of course the ever increasing array of places in St. Louis.

So enjoy each day, exult in the pleasures it brings, you never know.. As Albert Einstein said: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle”.

 Moving on..
Veering back to food, we had a chance to visit Bistro Français in Georgetown over the weekend. We ate there after attending the annual Christmas concert in the National Cathedral. It was their first performance after the earthquake. J. Reilly Lewis was ecstatic. With a longish story to be recounted later, I ended up eating Veal Kidneys. The venue is wonderful, the food not so much, at least on this occasion. They did nail the drink however.

And in another edition sometime, thanks to a reader, we can explore the technique required to “tarne a crab”, or “fract a chicken”..


Thank you all, and thank you Dorothy for being in and giving joy to our lives.. and she always was

DFD