Driving to Cape Cod three weeks ago, we started to see pickup trucks with gas grills in the back.  Wondering why, we figured it out when we got on 495 heading south.  Then almost every pickup truck had a gas grill in the back.  Drawing nearer to Foxboro we realized the popular Patriots were having a football game, and the traffic got heavier on both sides of the highway.   It made me wonder about these partying Patriots.  Did they cook right in the truck?  Did they all climb up around the grill to party?  Or did they drag it down in the parking lot.  And how safe could that be....gas grills among parked cars.

This week driving in Kingston along the Thruway, I saw truck after truck heading south toward  New York City.  Some were carrying those giant outdoor lights they use for working in the dark.  Several had large pipes on them, each pipe the full size of the truck bed.  Probably they would link these pipes together to empty the water from the tunnels and subways.  Poor New York, really got battered by Sandy, where we went Scot free...not even losing electricity which usually happens if a breeze blows.  The old apple tree, at least the rotten part, fell over.  A sad sight - that tree was the last of four apple trees that were in the yard when we came in 1967.  This one had a large hole in it that squirrels and chipmunks would run up and down and hide in when a hawk appeared.  Each one of my grandchildren at one time or another, ran a truck or a ball, down the hole and out the bottom, a game they never seem to tire of.  They were too short to reach the hole and had to get a chair to climb on to put the toy in the runway.  No more.

The only remembrance of Sandy still apparent is no sound of train whistles.  We are a good mile from the railroad tracks, but the trains are easily heard, especially at night.  I love to hear that whistle, and I wonder if it is a freight train with a small staff, or are there people traveling, probably sleeping at this time.  It will be good to hear that whistle again.