Hello,

How many accountants does it take to change a light bulb?  Really, it only takes one, but she must be resourceful.  The first task is to figure out what kind of a light bulb do you need?  There are apparently screw-in kinds.  There are also bayonet types which you push in and turn slightly in an anti-clockwise fashion (sort of like the beater on a KitchenAid mixer, for those familiar).  Those two types are available at the grocery store.  However there is a third kind with two pins on the butt end which are pushed into 2 tiny holes.  This type must be purchased at a specialty lighting store (or maybe some hardware stores have them).  But if someone, ahem, who shall be nameless, {Hi, Mark here; I just thought I might break in at this random point and let say Hi.} leaves a pin in the socket when he removes the bulb, then your friendly neighborhood light-changing accountant must get on the stool to turn the power off to the whole house, (the circuit breaker is 7 feet off the ground ? it’s easier just to flip the main than try to read the individual switches), get back on the stool in the powder room, with a pair of tweezers (Ethan Allen apparently left the hammer and pair of pliers somewhere else when he furnished the show house) in hand to extract the wayward pin, and insert the bulb, hoping she can find the holes an arm’s length over her head in a dark powder room.  Then back up on the stool in the utility room to flip the power back on.   But finally we have light!  Then you must set the clock on the stove, which will not run if the power has gone out and the clock is not set.    One of the 4 recessed lights in the kitchen is now out, but we can’t even figure out how to remove that bulb, much less figure out what kind of a replacement is needed.  We’ll just cook in the semi-darkness.  It can only improve the flavor!

It was a quiet week in Lough Limerick.  I finished my painting.  And I’m quite pleased for my first effort.  Periodically the students take the art teacher out to lunch as a thank you so we went Wednesday.  However, since I neither golf nor play bridge, I’m afraid I found myself lacking in conversational material.  They are still a very nice group.

Friday we found a new mall.  And it looks very much inside like an American mall, albiet with different merchants, but a similar range of stores.  The big difference, however, is found on the exterior wall of the mall, near the main entrance ? a 30" diameter plaque of Pope John Paul II.   I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas, anymore, Toto.  {It’s  a holy, Catholic, and apostolic  Irish mall.  All purchases are covered under a papal nuncio c. 1982}

Yesterday was a beautiful day.  We drove across the country to Co. Wicklow.  On our way, we passed through beautiful horse country, seeing lots of stud farms and some horses out for some exercise.  We also saw some pheasants.  It reminded me a bit of the countryside in Kentucky.  Further on, we crossed the Kings River.

The roads in this country are interesting.  There are the M roads which are dual carriageways (divided highways).  There are also the N roads which are National roads and generally 2 lanes but relatively fast roads.  There are also R roads, which are regional roads.  We mostly travel on the N and R roads when we’re out sightseeing.  The R roads may or may not have a dividing line down the center, but they often do not have much of a shoulder.  The sides of these roads could be stone walls or hedges or perhaps a row of trees.  If they are trees, often the canopies of the trees on either side of the road will meet above the center of the road, in which case you will find yourself driving through the loveliest green tunnels.  The colors are starting to turn now as autumn hits.  It is quite beautiful.

We went to a place in Wicklow called Glendalough.   It is the site of some very old monastic ruins.  There are actually quite a few monastic artifacts.  They are everywhere in fact, and people come from all over to see the many monastic bits and the monastic pieces.  It’s monastic city really.   There is a round tower (nobody got to go up this time, which pleased Garth.  The adults finally got their comeuppance!) and some old churches.  A stream runs through it all.  It is about a mile walk between the 2 lakes and it was a wonderful, sparklingly clear, crisp day for a walk.  On our drive, we crossed over 2 mountain passes, the Wicklow Gap on the way east over, and the Sally Gap on the way west.  The hillsides were covered in fading heather, I believe, which made a nice purpley change from the green green green of the general countryside.

Speaking of this green country, our Web site is finally up and running.  We have a little ditty about the green countryside, as well as links to all of our letters.  The difference is that when you look at the letters now you will find links to pictures embedded more or less appropriately in the text.    We didn’t want to be mucking up your e-mail with lots of pictures but you can chose to check them out if you like.  The address is

http://homepage.eircom.net/~mroddy/Roddyweb

(Note:  the Caps are important!)

We are still TV-less so I am continuing to read up a storm.  {Mark is still, sadly, illiterate but is eating well.} I finally managed to get the book Ashes out of the library.  It is a dully pointed answer to Frank McCourt’s Limerick saga.  The notes on the back cover say "’Ashes’ is frank.  It does not court popularity.  It tells the story the way it was in the words of the lads from the Limerick lanes."  Unfortunately this particular lad had a bit of trouble finding the words to transition from one character in the story to another.   I would not recommend the book.  {I would, if paid sufficiently.  I did in fact but I got cracker crumbs and carrot peelings all over the thing and it did not work out well.}

However, he had one quite funny bit about a character named Bisto.
"Bisto often complained at the lack of toilet facilities at Limerick Corporation buildings (the City of Limerick government is called the Limerick Corporation).  When the men got the urge to go they had to go round the back.  Bisto was having a slash one day when a local councilor came round to join him.  ‘Wouldn’t you think,’ says Bisto, ‘that you’d have enough pull to get a toilet installed in there?’ ‘That’s true,’ said the councilor, ‘but I believe they’re going to put in a urinal very soon.’  ‘What’s a urinal?’ asked Bisto.  ‘It’s a thing you piss into,’ said the councilor.  Bisto thought for a moment and, as he buttoned up his fly he eyeballed the councilor and asked, ‘As they’re at it wouldn’t you think they’d put in an arsenal as well."
He may not be able to pull a story together, but he can sure tell a joke.

Tonight we went to dinner at one of Mark’s colleague’s house.  It was a wonderful evening.  They have 2 daughters off at Trinity College in Dublin and among other wonderful things, they were willing to share their kids’ library with ours {Our kids that is, not our library.  To share one’s library with another’s library, even in western Europe, is not considered sporting or particularly safe.}.  So we have new books, including one about a Mrs. Emmeline Arbuckle!  It was delightful to talk Irish.  Jerry feels as if he has lived through 3 entirely different Irelands in his lifetime.  It was so interesting to hear his perspective.

That’s if for now.  The kids start on their mid-term break next Friday at noon so we will be heading North.  We’ll talk to you later.

Slan,
Mer

Arf,
Mark
 
 

Hi,
It’s Tuesday and I am finally getting around to mailing this, however I must tell a funny story from today.  The Plassey Partners, basically the faculty spouses club, went on the "Angela’s Ashes Walk" today, where a guide takes you around town and points out the sites of the different places in the book where events occurred.  All of the McCourt’s residences with the exception of one are no longer in existence and some of the streets they lived on are no longer even in existence.  But it was entertaining and very fresh to me, as I reread the book this last weekend.  However, on the walk I began to make conversation with the president of the organization, Jean Downer.  She speaks with an unusual accent, and even my untrained ear could tell it was not a Limerick accent so I asked, "Where are you from?"  "Belfast," she replied.  "How long have you been in Limerick?"   "Two years," she said.  "What brought you here?"  "My husband’s job," she replied.  So of course my next question was "What does your husband do?"  Her reply, simply, "He’s president of the University."  A third woman had been listening to the exchange and just burst out laughing at my obvious but genuine ignorance.  I just told them that the president of my husband’s university is a priest, so I never have to worry about running into his wife around town.  Anyway, at least you know I’m running with a good crowd here in Limerick!