They came to mow.]]> They came to work on the garden. The Pulver family.]]> Maria came to clean.]]> Arthur stopped by to pick up his remote control sailboat that he had loaned us for our anniversary party.]]> The man from Bottini came to do the yearly service on the two oil burners and water softener. He didn't want his photograph taken. Thus the image of his truck.]]> A crew from Rhinebeck Rentals came to take down the tent and gather other items that we had rented from them.]]> Ben arrived on the 14th of August and stayed at least through the 19th. He was helping us in various ways to get ready for our 50th wedding anniversary party on the 18th. Some evenings he went back to New Jersey to work for Uber, but usually he came back to sleep here except for one night]]> I can't remember which one. On the day of the party (the 18th) he spent about 4 hours vacuuming the Dutch barn. Some time on the other days was spent trying to get the remote control boats going as well as the remote controlled flying shark.]]> After Cathy's (Murphy) family left after breakfast, Cathy and I were sitting in the kitchen and looked out the window to see Jeanne Puryear walking towards the house carrying a bottle of champagne. We were rather surprised to see her, but understood, seeing the champagne, why she was here. It turned out that Jeanne thought the party was Sunday rather than Saturday, so arrived a day late. She did say she noticed it was rather quiet outside. We had tea and visited, more than we would have managed.]]> Some of Cathy's (Murphy) family came down from Massachusetts for the anniversary party, yesterday. We decided it would be nice to have them over for breakfast.]]> Some of Cathy's (Murphy) family came down from Massachusetts for the anniversary party, yesterday. We decided it would be nice to have them over for breakfast.]]> Our 50th Wedding Anniversary. Drone Still (taken by Chad Fust, with my direction).]]> Our 50th Wedding Anniversary. In the Dutch Barn.]]> The Pulver Family at our Anniversary Party]]> Our 50th Wedding Anniversary Party.]]> Our 50th Wedding Anniversary Party.]]> Mona Talbott of Talbott and Arding catered our anniversary party. We first knew of them from a party of Polly (Apfelbaum) and Stan (Allen) that she had catered and we had attended. We took note of how good the food was, it turns out that Mona cooked for a number of years at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California and was also, at one time, the chef at the American Academy in Rome.The food that she and her crew made for the anniversary party was wonderful.]]> The Red Shirt Crew (Julia, Olivia, Simon and Jimmy) were the first to arrive (not counting Ben Keddy, who stayed over.) There job at the party was to guide people for parking. When that was all done, they had dinner with us. I had spent weeks trying to figure out how the parking was going to work. Simon and I went over and over where the cars would go.]]> I had arranged with Lorenzo Wolff for him and one of the bands he is in to play at our anniversary party (see entry visitors 08-18-2018). It turned out that I had inadvertently given him the wrong date. When I got back in touch with him he told me he couldn't make it on the 18th. I panicked because I may have totally screwed up the music for the party. Lorenzo said he would get back to me after he spoke to Jono Waldman (The leader of the band.) He got back to me and said Jono could make it and would put together a group of musicians for Saturday. Wow, was I relieved.]]> Chris and Jimmy who both work as painters at Vassar came over to assess painting the trim on the house and my studio building. From time to time I would have lunch with Chris and Mark Briscoe.]]> house painter]]> After his usual chores Simon worked in the downstairs of the Dutch Barn, rolling up hardware fencing and putting it out to the side of the barn. Simon and I had lunch together (Cathy [Murphy] brought her lunch up to her studio). Next Simon did an errand at Adam's Fair acre Farm. Now we are typing these words.]]> I called Sears because our freezer in the upstairs refrigerator broke. We had to throw away tons of food, both raw and prepared (by Cathy [Murphy]) this was weeks ago, but it took us a while to get a appointment. The person I spoke to at Sears told me I had no warranty, so I said "Send him anyway". About two days ago I got a call from Sears asking me if I wanted to renew our service contract. I said, we have one? The woman said we did and it will expire early next week. I renewed our service contract for the next three years. Dave came over this afternoon and said we need a new compressor. He said it would be very expensive. Then I told him we had a service contract, he said there was no sign of it on our paperwork, and that I would have to call and straighten it out. Then make a new appointment and he would have to come back almost as if he never came over in the first place. Then we could deal with the compressor. I was instructed to wait til the next morning to call, so that what happened would be reflected on his paperwork. Hopefully you will see Dave on this site in a few weeks.]]> Douglas got in touch with us a number of weeks ago to say he was going to be in our neck of the woods and were we up for a visit (see Douglas Degges in the site's search engine). It has been a number of years since we have seen Douglas. He was nearby for the Wassaic Festival. We visited for some hours in the afternoon and then Cathy (Murphy) and I had to get ready to meet Judy Linn at the Fischer Center, Bard College to see Leonard Bernstein's Peter Pan. My camera seemed to think the woods and birdhouse was more interesting to focus on than Douglas.]]> Wyatt came to work in the garden. He weeded the ferns near the pond, as well as pulling up a bunch of grasses from the pond. He did a very thorough job. I don't know why the picture is so blurry, although I have an idea, but it is particularly annoying since I forgot to take a photograph his last time here (See Wyatt Carey June 24, 2018 in Visitors)]]> When Simon got here Catherine (Murphy) was upstairs and i was over in my studio. He did his initial chores thinking that we were still sleeping (which would have been a total anomaly). When I realized Simon was here I came across to the house. We (Catherine and I) kept changing our minds about what Simon should do next, because of the weather. Simon went out back with Catherine to her studio and replaced some of the grass for the painting, "Head to Toe". Simon and I had lunch, after which Simon did a reconnaissance to find any Rustoleum paint that we might still have because if it's not raining (like it is today), Simon will start painting the lawn chairs. We then started what we are doing now, which is putting data on this site. Even though I am talking to you in the present, of course at some point I will be dead and talking to you in the future or could that be in the past.]]> Julia came to model for Catherine's (Murphy) painting, "Head to Toe".]]> John and Rebecca came on behalf of Central Hudson, from which they are contracted, to look at the trees that needed to be removed near the electrical wires. It seems that Central Hudson will be removing the trees so that we won't have to have Mike take them down (See Mike DiGiacomo June 19, 2018)]]> Simon picked up a quart of milk on the way here and then did his usual things when he first gets here. First he sprayed anti deer solution on some of the plants in the garden. Did some errands, after which he worked with me straightening out my studio. At the present moment, I am dictating what you are reading. As you can see from the photograph, Simon is sitting behind my desk in the office area of the backroom off the kitchen. It has been at least a year since this space was usable because of piles of papers and cds. I spent the last week putting this space in order. I hate doing that, but am very pleased that we don't have to sit in the kitchen or dining room or porch to work on the computer (hopefully for sometime to come).]]> Julia came to model for Catherine (Murphy) painting, "Head to Toe".]]> Julia posed for Catherine (Murphy)]]> John from Sterling Pump came to check on the circulating pump for the pond which has not been working. It seems that we will need a new one.]]> He came to the door to politic for Pat Ryan who is one of the seven democrats running in the primary for the 19th congressional district. We talked for a little while.]]> About a week ago, I was at the help desk (computer center), working with Brian Chickery on getting my data shifted from my old computer to this one. I made an announcement to all the students working there to see if any of them would be interested in some garden work. Wyatt reluctantly said ok. While here he did weeding, and anti deer spraying. He said he would be interested in coming back if there is more work. The day before he came over was his 19th birthday. I forgot to take his photograph.]]> Chad came to look at the wifi situation for my studio across the driveway. It turned out that, for some reason, the optimum reception was surprisingly good so we didn't need to put in a special arial between the house and the studio.]]> Julia came to model for Catherine's (Murphy) painting, "Head to Toe"]]> They worked in the garden. We all had lunch together and then they worked in the garden some more, as we do every time they come to work.]]> David (who wrote down his last name for me which I preceded to lose) was canvassing for Democratic Primary Congressional Candidate Jeff Beal. We had a good talk and by the end since I wasn't sure who I was going to vote for I decided to vote for Jeff Beal. Despite what was said by some people I thought IF he won he would be a long shot to beat Faso. Which I thought was very important, but nonetheless.]]> Julia came to model for Catherine Murphy's panting, "Head to Toe"]]> Simon did various things at work.]]> Darren and Jean Jean came to work on the garden and eat lunch with us.]]>