Adventures With Patti

Help! Pineapple alert! The evening news was all a-twitter about the pending storm, a Pineapple Express carrying loads of moisture across the Pacific from Hawaii. San Francisco and Oakland public schools shut down in anticipation of flooding and power outages. Several friends called or emailed us to remind us to stay safe. In the middle of the night it started to rain, and the wind picked up. It rained hard; it blew. But seriously, it just wasn't that big a deal. Gauss's planned meeting with an old client was canceled because she was afraid to drive. We decided to go to SF and play tourist, so we went to the San Bruno BART station and bought tickets. Parking was a little confusing so before we entered the turnstiles we hailed the station agent, whose back was turned to us. When he turned around, we were all shocked: Eddie from the running club!! He was no longer running due to an injury so we hadn't seen him on recent trips. He had no idea we would be in the Bay

Snowy southern Minnesota from the plane. Frozen lakes and farm fields. Rectangles are roads separating 1-mile square sections of land. Dark patches are groves, one for each farmstead. Back to our beloved Bay Area for a visit! Once at SFO we got off to a less-than-auspicious start. The plane taxied to the gate and then we waited...and waited...and waited. Cabin attendants announced that the jetway had broken one foot from the airplane door. Wait, can't just about everyone step over a one-foot gap? If not, doesn't someone have a piece of plywood and some duct tape? Does Red Green make house calls? When Sun Country finally released us, Ted picked us up from the airport and dropped us at Hertz for our rental car. We saved $90 by renting from the San Bruno facility instead of the airport; our frugal friend Ted appreciates this. If our Vibe, George, and our Altima, Bertha/Liam Nissan (the Altima is a little conflicted) got busy, their kid would look like this. We got a Ni

Our cargo We set off for the small town of Candia Lomellina where Eduardo and Anna’s daughter, Francesca (Franci) lives. It wasn’t just a visit, we had a mission: to transport three special French chickens to her home. If it were December, we would have been singing “Three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree” as we drove. Franci keeps chickens and discovered the hard way—when she forgot to close them into the coop for the night—that her fenced enclosure for the birds wouldn’t keep out a determined fox. When we released the chickens into the yard, we made her promise to shut them into the coop every night. Gauss releases the chickens into the yard Eduardo drove us there on the state highways instead of the autostrade but the chickens didn’t much care for the many roundabouts on our route. Each time he took a corner or braked—which was often, this being Italy—there was concerned peeping from the back of the car.   Franci and Alberto's coun

Boats, swans, ducks, and kids in Lecco The waterfront in Lecco Our original plan for this vacation was to take the train to Sondrio in the foothills of the Alps and to take a bus from there to the mountain town of Chiareggio. But Gauss didn’t have the energy for a big Alpine excursion. Instead, Gauss and I decided to substitute a day trip to Lecco and Lake Como. Eduardo dropped us at the train station for the 30 minute ride from Monza. When we arrived in Lecco, the streets were quiet—it was Sunday morning so nearly everything was closed. We walked downhill, and once we got to the lake we strolled along the waterfront, enjoying the ducks, swans, sailboats, and scenery. There wasn’t much happening except for a guy dressed like an American Indian—whether he actually was or not, we are not sure—who had set up a little kiosk accessorized with a cattle skull, a blue feather headdress (hmmm) and a sound system. Periodically the notes from his wood flute, mingled with the rhyt

It seems that we usually drop in on Gauss's Uncle Eduardo and Aunt Anna, but since Gauss didn’t have the energy for our planned trip to the mountains, we imposed on them for the last three days of our visit instead. Gianni insisted on driving us out to Monza, so we had a short family reunion on Eduardo and Anna's patio.  Anna made strawberry gelato and a cake with dried sambuco flowers for us...there was no end to the eating adventures on this trip. Adriana and Costanza watch as Gauss looks at old photos with Eduardo and Anna Gauss and Adriana before the Papagnos leave us off in Monza Gianni with ready to drive back to Milan after dropping us in Monza Gauss and his cousin Costanza outside Eduardo and Anna's house In Monza, we spent a lot of time just sitting around, napping, gabbing, and eating. Eduardo and Anna are relaxed and playful, so it’s easy to just hang with them without feeling like we must go somewhere or do something. Anna in the kitche