Just got back...

...from Boston where we visited my son and daughter-in-law and granddaughter, and my daughter and various friends and roommates of the aforementioned. We had a very nice time. They are great kids!!

We saw Sara's pre-school. What a nice set-up. If I had had something like that when I was a kid, I would probably have a PhD now. :-)

Traffic on I84 was not a picnic coming home (I was able to average 70 on the way up!). There were two non-construction-related tie-ups -- one was probably caused by a heavy merge from an adjoining road, but the other had no observed cause! There was one because of "construction". The quotes are there because there were signs up and cones that forced us into a single lane, but there were no workers and of course no construction. I think we'll try I95 next time. How bad could it be?

What was nice was that I didn't read CNN or watch TV news so there was nothing from Washington that could make me grind my teeth. But we have something here! My community liability insurance premiums went from $37,000 to $120,000 in one year because of the number of "slip and fall" lawsuits that were brought -- by residents, no less, against the homeowners association. That's from $87 per resident to around $280 per! And now, the widow of a resident who fell on his walkway and hit his head but refused to get treatment because he had to take his wife to the doctor is suing! Several hours later, he felt bad and went to the emergency room where he died from his injuries. Jeez! Where did they get a lawyer who would do that? There used to be a principle called something "what would a reasonable man do" in a given situation. But I think that disappeared when the number of law school graduates took a sharp rise.

Doesn't matter whether the lawsuit is won or lost -- the claim is what drives up the premiums!! And try and find another insurance company??? Oh, well. I'm not going to worry about it. Thank goodness we can afford another $200 a year if it comes to that, although I'm sure that many of the people who have moved out since we've been here did so because living here is much more expensive than they thought. Thank goodness Cathy is a Realtor(TM) and she knew exactly what to expect!

I'll get another Flickr slideshow going from the visit later in the week.

Did I mention that Cathy broke her toe a couple of weeks ago? Well, it is healing slowly. Riding in the car today - especially with the traffic delays - meant that she was off her feet for many hours and she said that it felt better today than it has for days. :-)