| Staying at home - 2 April 2020 |
| Here's an update on life at the ancestral home in the days of the virus: I'm staying at home, except for food shopping, and a daily run or a walk with Avi. I've started wearing a mask when I go into shops, though they haven't been too crowded, and people do keep their distance. And I've started moving things around for פסח , though it's going to be much less of deal this year than usual. The minyan is running a full schedule of weekday services on Zoom. Att . . .(more) |
| Back Home Again - 22 March 2020 |
| I'm back home again, sifting through my pile of mail, and enjoying being in my house, after more than five weeks away. All is well, and it feels good to be back here. Tomorrow is Grandmother Genie's Yahrtzeit, and I'll be joining the virtual minyan. Yep |
| With Avi in Portland - 19 March 2020 |
| Now, on the last stop of my world tour, I'm in Portland with Avi. She's working as a locum tenens pathologist at the OHSU hospital. We have a nice Airbnb in a very hilly neighborhood, and there is a wonderful view of Mt. Hood out the window. The weather is nice enough to sit outside, which is good because everything is closed because of the virus. Fortunately, they have not locked us down here yet, so I can go out for walks and runs. It's a very beautiful place. . . .(more) |
| In Seattle at Joe and Jenny's - 13 March 2020 |
| After a long flight across the Pacific, I'm in Seattle at Joe and Jenny's. Seattle has more cases of the coronavirus than anywhere else in the country, and many things in the city are shut down. Very similar things are going on in other cities, and places where they haven't yet, they probably will very soon. We're doing a lot of hand washing, and not going out much. On Sunday, I'm taking the train down to Portland to meet Avi and spend the next week with her there. |
| Back in the Fort - 5 March 2020 |
| I'm back in Galle, at the guesthouse where I've stayed for the last five years, and spending my days in the Fort, an area which is full of pretty old colonial buildings, and has nice restaurants and shops. The big change this year is the dramatic decline in the number of tourists, due to the coronavirus. There are still quite a few, but the Chinese have entirely vanished, and I think that all the other nationalities are considerably reduced. The streets, which were thronged last . . .(more) |
| Kandy People - 3 March 2020 |
| These are the people I know in Kandy, aside from Bernard and Uma, at whose guesthouse I stay: Buddhika Konara is my Sinhala teacher. I spend a couple of hours with him every day, talking and reading. He is a lecturer at Peradeniya University, which is just up the road from Kandy, and a charming guy. Stephen Champion is an English photographer who has lived here for decades. He is a real character, and is full of insights in this place and its people. . . .(more) |
| Back in Kandy - 24 February 2020 |
| After a few days in Colombo, I'm back in Kandy, which is one of my favorite places in Sri Lanka. I'm visiting with friends today and then tomorrow evening I start my Sinhala lessons. The jewel of the town is an artificial lake, built by the last King of Kandy. On its shore is a building that I think was a bathhouse for the royal ladies. It has been under repairs for the last year or two, and was surrounded by scaffolding, but now the work is done, and it is beautiful. |
| More Kochi - 16 February 2020 |
| A few days ago I did a full day tour of the "backwaters", a large network of rivers and channels that runs along the coast of this state. Our little tour group (me and a half-dozen Belgian students) spent an hour and a half in a small bus going through, and then out past the edge of the city. Finally we came to a river, where we got into a little open boat that a local man poled across the river and then along a narrow channel. We stopped to visit things like spice farms and gawk at the beau . . .(more) |
| First days in Kochi - 12 February 2020 |
| I've been enjoying my first days in Kochi. The guesthouse is nice, and there is interesting conversation around the breakfast table with the other guests. I went for a run this morning and passed through all kinds of interesting neighborhoods and saw the life of the town as people were heading off to work and to school. This area is next to the sea, and one of the tourist attractions is a series of giant fish nets that are lowered into the water and drawn out again through a s . . .(more) |
| Morning in DC and Philly - 5 February 2020 |
| These are a couple of pictures taken this week as I watched the morning routine in DC and Philly: Getting ready to go to school and to work. It's fun to be there and watch the day begin for you all. It was a short visit, but I enjoyed it. |
| Next Family Weekend - 22 January 2020 |
| It's time to start thinking about next summer. Do you all know yet what your schedules will be like? If you do, please let me know what weekends might work for you, and we'll try to find a weekend when everyone will be available. Also, what would you think of going back to the place we rented last year? It seemed like everybody liked it. In any case, an early start will increase our chances of getting a place we will be happy with. If you sign in t . . .(more) |
| Mugs of Your Youth - 1 January 2020 |
| I hope you all had a nice New Years Eve. We stayed in and streamed a corny but enjoyable movie from a few years ago called "About Time" One of the actors looked very familiar, and it turned out that she had a part in "Slings and Arrows" that old Canadian series that I like. Today it was back to drinking coffee and studying languages. I'm getting towards the end of אנשים טובים , the Hebrew novel I've been working on. I know it's been translated into English, and I th . . .(more) |
| Boaz in the school winter show - 21 December 2019 |
| I went to see the Sela school winter show. Here's a picture of Boaz and his class. It was very impressive to see how much Hebrew the kids had learned. |
| Visit with Sam and Elizabeth - 17 December 2019 |
| I just got back to DC from a delightful visit with Sam and Elizabeth. We met for lunch at their favorite Thai restaurant in Culpeper and then went to the farm, where we spent the evening talking about everything under the sun, but especially family. After all, what better topic is there than the Fox family? I stayed over with them and drove back this morning. They both seem well, and they sounded positive about the idea of coming to visit in Chicago next summe . . .(more) |
| Welcome to the Fox Family Blog! - 29 November 2019 |
| Welcome to this new blog. I created it essentially as a programing exercise, but if you like it, we could use it as a shared bulletin board. You can add a picture to each blog entry. Let me know of any things you would like added or corrected in it. I'm writing this on Friday afternoon, in the midst of a delightful Thanksgiving weekend with Tamar and family and Renana. I'm missing Deena and her family, and hoping that they can be with us next year. The picture . . .(more) |