As Tom put it, 2012 seemed, for whatever reasons, to have been amazingly busy for all of us, and yet with very little of note to commend it. (But of course I’ll find lots to talk about anyhow!) With both kids continuing to live at home, it’s been a challenge keeping track of everyone’s schedules. I think
that’s what made the year seem so busily unproductive. Eva’s commute gets her home at 7pm, while Tom has had evening classes and band practices, and I don’t usually walk in the door much before 6pm. The mutual coordination of the schedules of four adults in a family household has taken adjustment on the part of everyone.
“Miles and Miles” would be the theme of our year. The state of the economy necessitated Tom traveling more for business than usual, and fortunately some of those trips were to southwestern NY so he was able to swing through PA and visit his mom. We spent his birthday weekend in September with her, And also visited her when his sister Margie was in from out west.
In January at the motorcycle show in Detroit he came across a deal he couldn’t resist, and replaced his Yamaha candy-apple red Royal Star motorcycle with a champagne gold Yamaha Venture cruiser. He saddled up for a 10-day trip out to Reno, NV in July. Once again the trip was in the height of the brutal summer heat, but he and a friend did the 4000 mile round trip with no complaints or incidents — well, except he left his phone at a rest
stop, and some questioned charges on his credit card resulted in it getting cancelled! But it all got sorted out in the end.
In his down time he continued to tinker with his ’47 Plymouth. Last year I thought the car was in fine fettle; just goes to show the difference between a casual enthusiast and a diehard one! Along with enjoying time as a member of the Chelsea Classic Cruisers car club, he again attended the Woodward Dream Cruise.
Tommy attends college locally and Eva commutes to downtown Detroit. She began the year working as an Assistant Manager at The Buckle but soon came to the realization that the retail environment with its intense pressure and odd hours wasn’t for her. An opportunity came up with Carat, an international ad agency that had landed the GM account and opened an office in Detroit to handle the business. She’s an Associate of Digital Operations (so the online Cadillac, Buick, GMC, and OnStar ads you see have her stamp on them.) She is enjoying the position and received a promotion six months after she started. One of Eva’s closest friends, Maggie, got married in July and Eva was the unofficial maid of honor since Maggie elected not to have a bridal party. In
mid-August Eva began to plan a two-week vacation to London and Paris in September. This is how you can tell she is Tom’s daughter; only once in my life have I ever planned that far ahead for a trip! She had an absolutely wonderful time! The highlights were Westminster Abbey, Versailles, the Louvre, and meeting Matthew Lewis, aka Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies. Recently, she signed the lease for a small house in the metro-Detroit area and will move there with her dog, Jack, in February. However, since we’ve had Jack here for the last three years I’m considering suing for joint custody! ;)
Tommy’s vacation jaunts took him camping in northern Michigan a couple of times with high school and college friends. He found Michigan’s Pictured Rocks shoreline of Lake Superior to be the most beautiful place, and has encouraged me to get in better physical shape so that next summer I can hike its gorgeous rocky trails. He also had the opportunity to work at the Dexter High School band camp once again this year, which he absolutely
loves doing. At this point it looks like he has finally decided on music education. To that end he’s completing core course work at the local community college and plans to go to Eastern Michigan University to complete his degree.
Tommy’s group, Dirty Deville (an homage to an amplifier with a grungy sound), released a CD and played several times at venues around southern Michigan, including headlining at The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor a few times. Once again his parents closed the bar on occasion as the headlining band doesn’t go on until midnight. AND I had to go back to the car to get my ID in order to get in! Talk about insult to injury! But it’s a state law that everyone has to have ID, so off I’d trot to retrieve the required card.
I traveled back to PA several weekends during the year, visiting Dad and Claire and extended family. While Tom went west on vacation, I headed east for a week of utter peace, tranquility, and contentment at Chautauqua in southwestern NY. Chautauqua can be best characterized as a lakeside cultural arts Victorian resort community with limited vehicular traffic that offers a wide range of music, dance, drama, literary, religious
and social science opportunities. I was totally refreshed and rejuvenated by the time I spent there. It’s a boring mantra to year after year say that work is incredibly hectic, but it is and Chautauqua is a balm that soothes my spirit.
The biggest story of our year was the “Ides of March” tornado that struck Dexter this spring. The weather had been incredibly warm, to the point where it was downright hot in early March. As several of us were leaving work on March 15, the tornado sirens went off and we went down to the basement of the parish office building. After about 15 minutes, the sirens stopped so I hightailed it home, watching the sky blacken menacingly ahead of me. Stopped to get the mail, and a loud thunderclap and bolt of lightning shot me back into
the car and flying up the driveway. Tom and Tommy were in the basement watching the final minutes of the Syracuse NCAA basketball tournament game, where I joined them. Simultaneously the game ended and the power went off. Rain and hail were pounding down and the wind was really howling. We kept track of the weather on our phones and saw National Weather Service warnings that there were tornadoes around us. When the weather died down we went upstairs and outside. There was a steady stream of cars coming
through our subdivision, driving across the flooded bridge over Brass Creek. At that point we found out that tornadoes had hit Dexter and there were downed trees nearly everywhere so traffic was being routed through our neighborhood. One neighbor told us he had watched the tornado heading straight for our sub only to veer east just before reaching the front entrance.
The devastation was incredible. The path it took covered about 11.5 miles. Trees were snapped and downed, hundreds of homes sustained damage (some were leveled, others had to be demolished and rebuilt), debris was carried for miles. A block away from my office a laundromat and carwash were destroyed. And just as you hear about tornadoes, right next to it there was no damage whatsoever. Dexter was blessed, however, in that there were no deaths or even injuries.
The parish served as a food and clothing center as well as distributing financial assistance. Victims were hesitant to accept money, insisting that someone else could use it more. When I stopped by one place to drop off an envelope, I had to go to the back door as there was plywood instead of a front door. The fellow tried to refuse the money, saying that they didn’t need it. I said, “You don’t have a front door! You need it!” While the majority of blue tarps are down and construction/repairs have generally been completed, the
physical transformation of the once beautifully canopied roads leading into Dexter is a stark reminder of those 60 minutes, and will be for years to come.
Well, indeed I have found tales to tell for two pages — but it’s nice to keep up. Our fondest wishes to you all, and hope that God’s blessings and peace will be with you in 2013.
We wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
