Christine made me promise her that I would not post this photo. It was sooooo horrible. It looked like we had spiderwebs all over our faces. We actually cracked up over it, but she absolutely demanded, in no way was I to post it. But this is actually a doctored version with all the spiderwebs softened and/or removed. I hope it's ok now Christine. I hope you now approve of this. You are such a cutie that I just couldn't resist.
Christine had just returned from work. What should I do with Eddie? - Christine asked Robert. Take him for a walk where you walk the dogs, Robert suggested. It's too hot - Christine argued. And boy was it ever. Hot and sticky. As beautiful as this state is, I just wouldn't be able to handle the humidity. But a walk we did, and it was a beautiful forest to sweat in.
The following day, Christine had to work again. While she was sweating away at work, Robert and I went to have brunch at their favorite place they talked about; where they suggested that James and I go to.
A little hole in the wall from 1949.
The Laurel Diner. It was like stepping back in time - a very tasty time.
I don't remember now all that happened, and in which order because it's now several months later that I am telling this story. What I do remember is that I ended up spending a lot of time with Robert and it was really nice. He took me on a long car ride showing me the area. Connecticut is really a beautiful state. And when Christine came home from work, we had some really nice chats too. Most of the time was spent relaxing and catching up on what has been going on. Too much Jens stuff to talk about but we ended up talking about many other things and it was really nice to wash my head out with other subjects. It was such a nice visit for me. They kept me fed well, too. Christine is an excellent chef and Robert knows the best restaurants.
One day just crashing out in the backyard
by the pool and looking up
admiring all the greenery and beautiful blue skies.
Just a quick selfie as we wait for Robert to pull out the car from the garage.
I have a huge smile on my face because of something
Christine said. Christine always makes me crack up.
We are off on a drive to find a place to eat.
We come to an amazing fish restaurant.
We are able to eat in the outdoor garden area. The restaurant is near a golf course and on the way there, we passed this this sign. It immediately grabs my attention. Victor Borge, a Dane, is a very well know musician in Denmark and a musical comic in the USA. Without knowing a word of English, he escaped the escalating German war by ship from Europe to the east coast of the US in 1940.
One of Borge's other famous routines was "Phonetic Punctuation," in which he read a passage from a book and added exaggerated sound effects to stand for most of the main punctuation marks, such as periods, commas, and exclamations marks. Another is his "Inflationary Language", in which he added one to every number or homophone of a number in the words he spoke. For example: "once upon a time" would become "twice upon a time", "wonderful" becomes "twoderful", "forehead" becomes "fivehead, "anyone for tennis" becomes "anytwo five elevinnis", "I ate a tenderloin with my fork and so on and so forth" becomes "I nined an elevenderloin with my fivek, and so on and so fifth".
For not knowing a word of English in 1940, he sure learned to master the language almost overnight and became one of the biggest wealthiest comics of all time back in the early 40's to 60's, selling out one-man shows at Caringi Hall for quite a long time. Lots of televisions recordings like on The Ed Sullivan Show and many others of that type. He lived and died in Connecticut. Half of his ashes are in CT and the other half in Denmark. You can google a lot of
videos on YouTube. Victor Borge on
wikipedia.
Eventually it was time to say good-bye to my favorite east coast sister and her husband. Christine and Robert were a little nervous about how I was going to get to JFK airport. Christine really couldn't drive me there because she had to work. Robert was limited to short drives as his arm was having difficulties. I assured them that I didn't want to be driven all the way to JFK anyway. I told them I would take the train. I just needed a lift to the nearest train station. I only knew of Bridgeport and Fairfield train stations about 45 minutes to one hour away. But even that would be a long drive one way for me and both ways for Robert. Christine and I talked about how maybe I could drive one way and Robert could drive back. I ended up googling "Southbury to JFK" on public transport. Last time I went from Manhattan to Southbury, it was on the Peter Pan bus. Robert was sure I could get back to Manhattan via Peter Pan and that was what I really wanted to do. I told Robert that Peter Pan doesn't stop anymore in Southbury. Sure they do, he says, he saw a Peter Pan bus just the other day. True he did see the bus as it is still running but the Southbury bus stop no longer exists. We drove by the old bus stop just the day before to be sure and true enough, it was closed down. I continued to google. How funny that Robert and Christine didn't even know that there is a train station right in the next town just 25 minutes away. It was so simple. Then a 2½ hour train ride with 1 station transfer for $17. No hassle with freeway traffic. Very easy going. I gave myself plenty of time to see a bit of NYC as I needed to then switch train stations - Grand Central Station to Pennsylvania Station and then a train to JFK which also requires a train transfer from the Jamica Station to the airport on the AirTrain.
Eventually I got to JFK. And thanks to my mom for letting me book a flight using her AA MasterCard miles, I didn't have to worry about flying stand-by. However, I did have to worry about not losing my phone again.
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