JAN-A-4
THE DERWOOD DAY FOR THE VISIT OF MICHAEL AND JUDY AND THE TWINS
FOR THEIR HOLIDAY TIME AT HOME, A NEEDWOOD LAKE RUN,
AND MY DEPARTURE FOR FLORIDA,
WITH CONTINUATION TO CUMBERLAND
AND THEN RETURN FOR MINDANAO
December 30, 2002
They are such adorable kids at this perfect age in life that they are a pure pleasure to be with! Yeah, I know, it is only because they are related to me, etc, but these little people seem as good as gold, even when they are into mischief. They are very receptive and responsive to attention right now, and recognize their grandfather and come to him when he puts out his arms—but they are then immediately ready to go off exploring again.
And, Derwood is such a wonderful place for kids to explore! Even now, at the doldrums of the year, with snow on the ground and piles of leaves to fall into, they were eager to have a tour around, outside, throwing snow, standing on the overturned canoe, and especially Jordan, who wanted to go down the steep hill in the woods, a surefire way for him to go head over teakettle in his fluffed up snow suit that make him bounce like the Michelin Man.
They also got a chance to play with the big animals now resident indoors. Jordan identifies the Cape buffalo as “doggie”—it does have four legs, the most abundant representatives of that speices with which he is familiar respond to that name and their familiar calls Like Joe, in making his Braille tour of the trophies, the kids could go around and hug the big sheep and pat the antlered animals. We never did get downstairs to see the newer additions like the giant Maral, which might be big enough to frighten them at the ground level, but they really like the snow sheep. I shot a few photos. Of course, and then we all got togged up for a run. The twins are snowsuited and strapped into the twin baby jogger, and off we went to Needwood. In Derwood, they could explore over the deer droppings and tracks in the yard, and at Needwood, there were a couple dozen deer to be seen, but they were already heavy-lidded by the time we took off on our run. The great big buck—a twelve pointer, which was quite near me on Sunday morning’s early cold run, is still active around my house—presumably the one who had run along with the runners in the MITP Marathon on November 17 to the amazed observation of the crossing course marshals.
We got the twins into a bath after we had showered, and they got bundled up to ride with us to the BWI airport in a rather sunny pretty day for my takeoff, and they could play with their grandfather, pulling on his beard and chuckling as they bid me “Bye-Bye!”
So, now, after a flurry of last minute business on the old year dealing with real estate and its “improvements” I am off to play grandpa on the Florida front. Before I get there aboard this USAir flight that stopped in Charlotte, I will meet Jennifer Curran in Jacksonville, and we will get acquainted and juiced up for the next grand adventure upon my return from Cumberland next week—the Mission to Mindanao!