Gypsy – 1996 – 2010
February 6th, Saturday night, on my way to bed, I passed Murphy, our lab-cross, in the hallway. I climbed the first flight of stairs to our bedroom and in the near darkness, a dog flew passed me. Rounding the winding staircase, I looked up and watched as a white tail wagged in front of the bedroom door. I was totally confused. Murphy doesn’t have a white tail. I looked down the stairs and looked back-up – no tail, no dog. I called Murphy; heard her coming behind me. I stopped, stunned. The first dog up the stairs? Gypsy! He had died the night before. Months ago, when he was able-bodied, he would run ahead and wait at the door to go to bed. He hadn’t been up-stairs since early October. That first February week began auspiciously. For the first...
The Canadian Advantage – Why Canadians are Smiling
During its reportage of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, NBC is covering all thing Canadian and are correctly portraying Canadians as generally polite, reserved, dedicated, hard working and happy. At the Inn some of our fellow workers were talking about how much more friendly Canadians seem to be. Canadians are not friendlier than Americans. Nor are they more generous. Traveling and living in both countries, my experience is that Americans and Canadians are equally generous, helpful, polite and outgoing. But there is a profound difference. Canadians are more “comfortable” – I don’t know how else to put this. Thinking about it, their comfort comes from the knowledge that if they become ill, they will not lose their homes because of high...
Happy New Year – and an update on Vada.
On November 19th I wrote about the shooting of Vada Vasquez in the South Bronx. For those who read this entry, please note that our daughter reports that she made a great recovery and was home for the holidays. I apologize for not writing for the past couple of months and especially for not letting readers know that Vada was able to go home. We have been taking care of Gypsy. His arthritis flared up and he fell hurting himself in middle of November and we have not been able to get him to the Inn and we are spending much more time at home, helping him up and walk outside. He’s vegan – we know that helps. But he does not tolerate NSAIDs, including aspirin, ibuprofen, Rimadyl. Today we are adding turmeric to his repertoire of seaweed, Traumheel, peony...
Violence – and diet…..
Yesterday, November 17th, a friend as well as a former employee called from across the continent. We talked for quite a while. During the conversation, he mentioned that he believed that I hadn’t been happy with him when he last lived and worked here because he wasn’t vegan. He told me that it takes some time to “digest” the information regarding the health effects of a vegan diet vis-à-vis the animal based American diet. He said that I had time to understand all of this but he hadn’t had enough time. He was wrong. First, I wasn’t disappointed that he had not become vegan. I knew that he didn’t understand. Second I hadn’t become vegan for physical health at all. I told him that it was a simple change: Twenty-four...
Our Passion: Creating an Evocative Destination
Joan and I have been innkeeping for 34 years. The average length of time in this business for “owner-innkeepers” used to be 7 years and we are certain that we have raised that average. We remain innkeepers because we are essentially educators – in the truest sense of the word. The word educate is related to educere in Latin – “to lead out” or to “evoke.” We are evokers – at least Joan is – I might be more a provoker. The inn is our “campus” and every guest room, common rooms, the gardens, and the river are classrooms. Text books are our newsletter and the books that we offer for sale or inspiration (usually inspiring guests to order from Barnes and Noble, Borders, Amazon or, better, their...
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