When our daughters read
my last post about our changing a tire on the side of I-95 in Connecticut back
in 1986, they were reminded of another one of our impressive accomplishments a
couple of years later.
Gas barbeque grills
had become very popular, and now that we were living in a house we wanted to be
able to enjoy the summer evenings outdoors. There was a choice: buy a “kit” and
put the grill together yourself, or pay an additional charge to have the store
construct the grill. I cannot recall just how expensive it was but things were
tight for us so we said “how hard can this be?” and bought the kit.
The girls tell us
that they still remember how we spread the whole thing out in the family room
and came home every evening for about a week to work on it. The two scientists
might just as well have been solving the secrets of the genetic code for all
the serious effort that went into this exercise! But we did get it up and
running and enjoyed many barbeques in our backyard on Brook Road.
Meanwhile, a new
movie had piqued our interest, “Maggie’s Plan.” Maggie (Greta Gerwig) is a single
woman in her early thirties who wants to be a mother, although she has no marriage
prospects in the foreseeable future. She makes arrangements with Guy, a fellow
who creates and sells artisanal pickles (hard not to think about the charming 1988
movie with Amy Irving, “Crossing Delancey”). By the time the assigned date
arrives, she has met and started to fall for another man, John (Ethan Hawke).
Their situation is further complicated by the fact that John is married. The
movie then fast forwards about three years, and the next we see of them, Maggie
and John are now the married parents of an adorable little girl. Sadly, John is
beginning to experience the same disinterest that plagued his first marriage. I
do not want to go further and ruin the ending.
As he so often does,
the New York Times’ reviewer A.O. Scott said it well:
“Maggie’s Plan” is a modest movie, reluctant, like its heroine, to make
large claims or excessive demands. But it is also clear eyed, generous and
funny — tart but not sour, sweet but not too sweet, like one of Guy’s pickles.
We have a full few days coming up. Friday is Grandparents’ Day at Striar Hebrew Academy in Sharon, so both we and Simmie’s in-laws will be there for the weekend. We are having Friday night dinner with Dina and family, and Joshua is joining us for lunch. If the weather is good I suspect we will head back to their house shortly after lunch so the “boys” can play baseball in the yard. On Sunday we are hoping to take Julia on an outing to the Roger Williams Zoo. By this age (over 2) we had taken her siblings and cousins out on their own. But I guess we are older now and it is a bit more difficult for us to do. Ella, who is nearly a second mother to Julia, is going to come with us, so we get to have lots of fun with both of them. Sunday evening Ella is celebrating her upcoming birthday with a few friends, and then on Monday we all plan to gather for a Memorial Day family barbeque.
I hope to have some pictures to share from all of that!
Be well and enjoy the warm weather that is on its way.
Love,
Rebecca
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