CHAPTER 196: IMPRESSIONS OF MY LIFE: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A RECHERCHE POET CHICO YEARS: MORE PRODICTION, 2009

 CHAPTER 196. CHiCO YEARS: MORE PRODUCTION  2009

 

I did in this year when I was hanging clothes at Chico’s, a book of Cover Art, a book of collected poetry, Me, Myself and Eye,

 and three books of essays: Bends of the  Brandywine,

 

Life, Death and the Lonely Arts

 

and Morning After the Night Before.

This filled n a lot of my time.

 

On April 1 we made another trip down to Lewes, Delaware, once again spending a couple nights at the Inn on Canal Square, where my friend Ronald worked.

We ate dinner the 
first day at The Buttery. 

That night we spent in our room being very romanic and giving the bed a proper workout. Such activity had not yet become old for us. 

The canal was ablaze with lights, so we could sit in the room and enjoy the view.

The next morning we
went for a long walk about the town. Unlike our prior trip when  it was still cold and blustery and most of the town was closed, now as we entered April things were opening up again and the walking weather was pleasant. 

Here we saw a cat and rabbit on a Hot Tin  Lizzy

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And the guns of Battery Park 

 

And a house with a porpoise.

 

The three of us had dinner at Striper Bites, that is, Me, Lois and Ronald Tipton.

 

This is the outside of Striper Bites.

The blooms  were beginning to appear while we were
there this time.

These had become our days, when I wasn’t working, taking jaunts here and there. 

On July 3, thought things did not go as planned. We booked into the Courtyard by Marriott in Manchester County, just up and off Route 30 from Dutch Wonderland.  We had come specifically to walk through a corporate park I hd discovered on a  previous trip. 

We thought we could take a
nice ramble looking at the statuary, then spend a week visiting about dutch country, one of our favorite sites we had visited on and off for years, ever since childhood.

We did do a jaunt through the park. Despite it raining on us, then we walked  up the road to the Marriott, had dinner at the Dutch Haven Restaurant, then retired to our hotel room for the night. 

We planned to go to several sights the next day, but in the morning Lois went into the hotel bathroom to take a shower and she fell in the very slippery tub and badly bruised her  side under her arm. She was in quite a bit of pain.

I took this picture of her, then went down to the hotel desk
to complain about the dangerously slick tub. We cancelled the rest of the week I had booked and the hotel did not charge up for the night we had stayed. 

Given Lois’ discomfit, we decided the best thing to do was go home; however, even with her soreness, we did make a stop at the Mennonite Jewish Tabernacle since it was along the way home.

This is an exact replica of the Tabernacle Moses constructed in the desert. The Mennonites give a lecture-tour explaining all about this sacred Biblical place. It is very interesting and if you have a chance, go there. 

We stopped and had dinner at one of our favorite
restaurants on the way home. This is the Revere Tavern in Paradise, Pa. Everything about it is excellent. 

For our Wedding Anniversary on 9/16, we spent another weekend at the Borgata  in Atlantic City. This time I was careful of then mirrors. The  casino isn’t along the Boardwalk, but we could get a good view of the Boardwalk Area from our room

 

The room itself is spacious and nice.

We did take a bus out to the beach front  and walk around.

 

There was a Bark in the park sponsored by the Humane Association on October 23. This is one of the annual fundraisers they put on.  It was held at their headquarters on  A Street in Wilmington.

It is a Halloween Party, so everyone comes in costume. Noelle and her friends came as Nuns, Noelle (in the stripes) was the Nun on the Run. That is a fellow next to her and he was known as Sister Brother.

 

On Thanksgiving we went to the Gables of Chadd’s Ford,
which had become our tradition.  They serve  a large buffet each year and it as your usual traditional foods and then some.  

That is Lois and Noelle at the table in my blurry picture. 

 

We had Christmas at our place, just Lois, me and the kids. Due to age and scheduling we no longer made the trip up to my parents or them down to our place on Christmas Day.