family news

My first cousin Tom, who I have seen a handful of times in our lives, stopped by on the way back to the hotel from The Museum of Natural History. I remember his father, my uncle Ed, well. He worked for AMP and was the first person I ever heard talk about computers. He was a mad scientist inventor, and he told us that one day cars would drive themselves. This was in the 1950s, and no one believed him at the time. Ahem. So Tom also is some kind of systems engineer, having to do with running large buildings. He has been teaching others how to do it at Penn State and around the country and fully expected to run into people he taught at the World Trade center today.

   His wife Dee, meanwhile, is a hero. While fighting recurrent (for 15 years) and metastatic breast cancer, she fell down the cellar stairs and broke wrist and foot. They have been hauling in from Pennsylvania to Sloan Kettering this year. But this time it was a tourist visit, and Dee was walking all over NYC like a boss, casts and all.

    Their son Nathan showed me pix of his two pet Axolotls. I can't say that. They are high maintenance Mexican salamanders which are having a moment. Very cute,  check them out here. I want one, but I can't see adding aquaria to What's In the Truck. 

   And, yes, that is Donna in the mirror taking Dee's picture.  She behaved herself very well. Donna, I mean.