Tomorrow morning we are flying to Manchester, New Hampshire, to go to the Bar Mitzvah of one of Renee’s other grandchildren. The kids will fly back after the festivities, but Renee and I will be touring Massachusetts museums. There are lots of them, but we will only do four days worth. We’re starting in Lowell at the textile museum and the National Historic Park. From there we go to Amherst where there are several museums, then on to Mass MOCA and possibly the Shaker Village in Pittsfield Mass. We should be back in New York next Thursday where I will again have access to a computer.

My photos of the Morikami Gardens don’t do them justice, unfortunately. They are really beautiful, and I will post some photos eventually. We saw some interesting wildlife. We would have missed this
iguana sitting on the rock, but someone else spotted it and was taking pictures.

We saw the cormorant swimming in the water. They can remain under for an amazing amount of time.
Eventually they come up and sun themselves to dry their feathers. I don’t know why they bother. They go right back in the water again. But I’ll bet the sun feels good. The pond was filled with lots of very large koi and a number of large turtles. My fish pictures weren’t so good.

This time I got through security without any special treatment. I guess they are so used to fat old ladies in Florida they know we’re not terrorists. I had to spend two hours in Atlanta to get my connecting flight. One of the drawbacks of living in Pittsburgh: there aren’t so many places you can get to non-stop. I’ve been spoiled living in Chicago or NY/NJ most of my life.

I took a lot of pictures in the Morikami Gardens. What a great place. I’ll post another picture album soon.

Tomorrow I’m having cataract surgery on my left eye. The right one was done several years ago. I’m hoping for an easier recovery this time. It took more than a year before I was able to see well with the right eye. None of my doctors could figure out what was wrong and it got better without any outside help. So much for medical science.

Today is my last full day in Florida. It’s another beautiful day, lots of sunshine, not too hot. Pittsburgh was 33 degrees yesterday.

Carol and I are planning to go to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens to see The Faithful Samurai: Woodblock Prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797 – 1861), another busman’s holiday thing on my part and Carol humors me. This exhibition presents Kuniyoshi’s print designs of the 1830s and ’40s devoted to the attack by forty-seven retainers of the disgraced lord Asano Naganori on the mansion of their lord’s enemy, Kira Yoshinaka, an act which produced a steady outpouring of theatrical productions, woodblock prints, books and movies.

I feel like I’m on a busman’s holiday. Carol and I went to the Boca Raton Museum of Art to see an exhibit of Ukiyoe prints by Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769-1825), Utagawa Kunisada, also known as Toyokuni III (1786-1865), and Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858). These were shown in connection with a large exhibit of Whistler from the Hunterian Art Gallery of Glasgow, Scotland. Both shows were excellent. It was really nice to get a chance to see more of these prints. Although I have long been familiar with the work of Hiroshige, the Utagawa Kunisada was new to me.

My trip yesterday was a good example of why I no longer look forward to traveling. The flights were OK but I spent a lot of time waiting for them. But before I got started there was "security." I guess little old fat me looks like a terrorist; I was patted down. This is the second time I have come in for special scrutiny, in spite of the fact I’ve only been flying once or twice a year for the last few years. What really bothered me was the realization that I could have been carrying a weapon and they would not have found it. So, what’s the point of all the nonsense?

I’m on spring break now. My classes have adjourned for a week, so like all the college students, I’m off to Florida for a few days. Truth is I don’t much like Florida; I’m going to visit my sister-in-law. We have spent a lot of time on the phone since my brother died, and I want to spend some face time with her. I’ve had four sisters-in-law; she is the only one I’ve had a real relationship with. So we’ll spend lots of time talking, we’ll go to visit one of my cousins and some friends of mine from high school, and I will not come back with a suntan.

I spend a lot of time thinking about traveling. I have been fortunate to be able to go to most of the United States, Western Europe, parts of Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Egypt and Israel. I would love to go back to China and Japan, particularly after taking my Japanese art class. I think about it and talk about it. Somehow, I can’t bring myself to make actual travel plans. Even this trip to Florida seems problematic. I was able to make the arrangements, but I wasn’t able to think about packing until about an hour ago. I think my brain and my body are not working together on this.