The Murphy's lost their last uncle, Uncle Joe, on Monday.  No obituary yet, but you could fill a whole newspaper with Uncle Joe's life and stories.  I first remember Uncle Joe (or it could have been Uncle Eddy) coming home from war.  I was a little kid, and Grandma scared me as she screamed with joy and ran up and embraced her son.  Joe married Rosie, and we would sing a song, "Rose, Rose, I love you, with an aching heart, glory is the future, now we have to part..." as we walked up Falconer Street toward our house, under their upstairs window.  Rose and Joe and her family, would take Barbara and me to Sylvan Lake with them, early in the day, and the grown ups sat around the picnic tables, eating all kinds of delicious Italian food, while the kids would swim, just going back to get lunch.  Then Joe and Rose moved out of Grandma's house to their own place, a few miles away, but they visited often.

I remember one Christmas morning, when they came to see us, the house was a mess, six kids opening presents, wrapping paper all over the place.  Uncle Joe sat down, took out a cigar, unwrapped it, looked around and threw the wrapper on the floor with the rest of the mess, without a second delay.  That was Uncle Joe.  In later years he would enter saying, "It's Uncle Dum here", would give the finger to the O'Leary kids (they loved that), called my son, Paul, "Peter, Paul and Mary".  He would make some off color remark, and Aunt Rose would just say, "Oh, Joe".  They were a cute couple and had a son Brian that agewise was the same as the older O'Leary's.

When Sabra was born I asked Joe and Rose to be her God parents, and they agreed, and came to Tivoli to St. Sylvia's for the baptism.  After that, each Christmas, Sabra got a special gift from them, always one of her favorites and the other kids would watch just as excited to see what it was.

When Sabra got married, I rented a limo to drive the Judge, his wife, Uncle Joe, and Rose and Aunt Lillian and Bucky up to Germantown for the wedding.  It was a long ride and I didn't want those old folks driving so far.  Bucky cancelled, so she missed the fun.  I had told the bartender at the wedding, "Don't serve any drinks until after the ceremony", but I didn't realize the limo was equipped with a bar.  I did as soon as I heard Uncle Joe yell to Bucky, "Buck, you shitted out".  Uncle Joe and the Judge were ripped.  The Judge slurring his words, Uncle Joe standing in front of them, swaying back and forth, in his Uncle Joe dance - a dance he did upon completing a race.

That's another thing, Uncle Joe's running.  Apparently, years back, he was doing the Bridge Run, but walking it, and as people ran past him, he started to run.  And then he was hooked.  Race after race, he would run in, arms over his head, yelling something like "I'm not dead yet".  He ran with another older guy, and they would hold hands, coming in at the same time.  Sweet to see.  The Rhinebeck race was one of his favorites, and Timmy and I and Aunt Rose would go for breakfast, right after the race started.  "We have an hour before he comes in", Aunt Rose would say, and off we would go. Joe was a race favorite, winning trophy after trophy, sometimes the only one running in his age group.

Uncle Joe loved Bucky and even after her death, would address the couch as if she were sitting in her favorite place.  Sometimes he would ask for a hug, and once Maria gave him a good one and he commented "There's a lot of woman there", which made us all laugh.

Laugh we did, Uncle Joe was a comic, we're lucky to have had him.  Rest in Peace Uncle Joe.

Back from a vacation with Paul's family to Niagara Falls, Canada and five days at the cabin in Black Lake.  What a difference when I got home - no cicadas, no noise, and the blue jays and cardinals who have been dining on a cicada buffet are back at the feeders.  This morning there were two mother turkeys eating the corn, one with four babies, pretty small, and the other had three bigger babies. 

Niagara Falls is amazing, a real international destination, as there were people from all over the world there.  Not much English being spoken.  To ride a boat right into the falls, you board an elevator and go down several hundred feet.  Then you put on a blue raincoat  complete with hood, and you realize soon that you really needed to wear this as you head into the mist of the falls.  The steep banks are lined with seabirds, they looked like gulls and you can see people wearing yellow raincoats walking on a trail that actually takes them behind the falls. We didn't do this.  As you get closer to the falls, the boat, that is loaded with people, starts to roll and shift and everyone has out cameras that are getting wet.  I had my usual throw away camera, and the Japanese were very interested in it - pointing at it and speaking to each other in their language, so I don't know if they were impressed or laughing at me.  Anyway, it was fun, exciting and something to see.  The next day we went over the Rainbow bridge to Canada's side of the falls, which was in some ways even more visibly exciting, as you were on the top of the falls. 

Anyway, I am back to reality, B&B business, and a month away from my next destination vacation, Cape Cod.