As the title says, greetings from the Commonwealth of Virginia... arrived here on October 6 and have been having a glorious time with my nieces and sister and brother-in-law. Up at 6:30 am (EST) to walk Natalie to her bus by 7...it's at the end of the block, not like when I went to school (6 miles, uphill both ways...). Then back home to walk Veronica to her bus (same route) and then coffee and breakfast with Craig. Sheryl is working from home this week so we are doing some cool things... Veronica turned 11 last week and on Saturday we took a ride downtown and went to the Richmond Folk Festival... it's an outdoor, 3 day, music festival with tents and food booths and great music spread out over the riverside. We heard Irish folk music, Haitian bands, a group of fiddlers (including one 89 year old West Virginian who rocked it out), and saw a demonstration of Brazilian capowera, which is a combination of dance and martial arts... I got exhausted just watching them flip around the stage. Ate some alligator nuggets from the New Orleans food booth, some curry from the Indian (from India) booth, and potato pancakes and applesauce from the German contigent... Spent most of the afternoon there and had a great time... I got to reconnect with my cousin's son Tom who I haven't seen in years... he took the train down to Richmond from DC and went to the festival and spent the night. Had a great time exchanging stories and re-getting to know him... (now I have a new stop on the East Coast swings in the future).
Sunday morning we took Tom back to his train and got ready for Veronica's birthday party... (seven tween girls on a sleepover--no school Monday). They arrived around one in the afternoon and we piled in the cars and went to the pumpkin patch to pick up pumpkins (what else?) to bring back and paint... but the place had a lot more than pumpkins. There was a corn maze (awesome), corn cannons (air cannons shooting corn at targets) a collection of farm animals and a gourd tent, a fun house and of course, the pumpkin patch. Each girl picked a pumpkin and we came back to the house and while they were painting, I installed my ear plugs...(I didn't actually have any, but I could have used them). These girls made enough noise (it sounded like a stadium during a playoff game) but finally settled down around midnight. I got to sleep in Veronica's room and my eyes should return to normal in a few days... (her room is completely pink and the walls burned my retinas). Monday after breakfast, Moms came by and picked up their girls and we headed into Richmond on a "history quest" which I will relate in my next installment... Ciao for now.
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