7-6-03 Dave Wrote:
Hello from Dave -- We've got a problem: Carol reads e-mail on AOL, but I never use AOL and have found the AOL e-mail system to be stone-age technology as compared to the Eudora e-mail system that I use at work. Thus, this newletter needs to be routed to my work address (dar22@cornell.edu) to ensure at least a slight possibility that I will read and reply in a timely manner. Perhaps we can retain Carol's AOL address as well. Anyway, within the confines of the AOL system, I'm not certain if Alan's message will be retain or when the "reply to all" command automatically deletes all of the previous text. Things here are hectic as usual. It's hard to believe that it was 25 years ago that we all gathered here to put a new roof on my house. We did that the easy way, by going over the top of the old shingles. Now I'm payiong the price: I and my boys are taking off both layers, repairing rotten wood, and putting on new shingles. I planned to take 2 weeks vacation to complete the job, and we're about on schedule: about half done. The heat last week, along with boys that had other things scheduled, kept us from making good time. If the dry weather holds, we should be able to finish by the end of this week. Nathan was gone most of last week on a graduation trip with some of his friends to Lake George. Matt is working nearly full time at Mohonk serving meals in the dining room. Terence took a few days off and help me on three days. I was glad to have his energy for removing the old shingles on the back half of the house. You may wonder why I didn't invite all of you back to help this time. There were many reasons, but primarily I figured that all of you were too busy doing other things. Also, I thought I'd enjoy the process more if I could work at my own pace (slow, like an old man!) rather than trying to keep up with a whole crew of people.
Nathan leaves for 2 days this week to register for classes at SUNY Cortland (SUNY = State University of NY). The Cortland Campus is about 45 minutes from Ithaca in Central NY. He plans to share a dorm room with his best friend from high school. We've not certain that is a wise decision, but that's what the boys wanted to do.

Sara and Terence are negotiating to buy another house in Newburgh. The apartment building that they bought several years ago is all rented out to four different tenants, and they are living an apartment that they rent in Beacon. If they can manage to purchase the house in Newburgh, they will move there in the fall. The building that they are trying to purchase is interesting. It is on a 1/3rd acre lot at the juncture between a residential and an office area on the edge of the city. The building was originally a residence, was then changed to office space, and now Terence and Sara want to change it back to residential. It is all brick and concrete, including concrete floor between first and second story and flat concrete roof. Rather a unique setting, too, with a huge forrested outcropping directly behind the building that goes up about 80 ft and isolates their building from other neighbors. It will be interesting to see if they can close on the purchase.
Carol just finished a week of Vacation Bible School. She pretty much organizes the event for our church, although she had more help in organizing this year than she usually does. Nevertheless, VBS has occupied most of her time for the past 2-3 weeks.

Enough for now.