Patrick M. Moore

Yesterday, we brought Chitchen down to the cottage and introduced her to life south of the Thruway. We started the day at Emma’s First Communion at St. Mary’s in Horseheads. The alleluia raised some eyebrows when the priest played the bongos with the children’s choir. After presents and bacon, we changed into our play clothes and headed on down to Foxmoor Farm for Party # 2.

Jack wanted a firetruck-themed birthday party and Momma arranged a surprise visitor to come over from the local volunteer fire department. The kids (both big and small) got to climb all over the truck and ride around the whole farm. Jack’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the fire truck coming down the drive. I can share his excitement, having spent my last b-day at the Taj Mahal, and think firetruck parties are fun for ALL ages. At the end of all the excitement, Chitchen was all tuckered out. She’d been super well behaved with all the new people, meeting the other dogs and sniffing the horses. After she got in the van, Chitchen passed out and aired out the cowbelly – her deepest and most comfortable sleeping position.

We got down to Camp Seneca last night on our way to Horseheads today. It’s Chitchen’s first visit to the cottage and our little beagle got right to work on sniffing the perimeter and smoking a skunk out from beneath the porch. Nobody got sprayed, but the smell hung in the 48 degree air for an hour. She went into overdrive and zipped around the carpet without regard to ANY obstructions. Momma pulled the plug on our crazed Chitchen and we all focussed on settling down. After we climbed into bed, I plugged in the power strip to the router and modem. It fired right up and I connected right away. AT&T reports in with 3 bars (out of a possible 5) with data carried on the ‘Edge’ network (not ‘3G’ I think). All good for summertime productivity from the cottage’s Internet cafe.

Pictures soon of our quick trip through the southern-tier.