Living in Dryden

Hyperlocal news

I do hope to return to writing hyperlocal news at some point, especially as the Ithaca Journal seems to have become the incredible shrinking paper. In the meantime, it's nice to know that I was ahead of the trend. As local newspapers collapse, their successors seem to be picking out smaller areas to cover.

Sungiva's thirteenth month

Now that Sungiva is over a year old, it was time for her to explore more of the world. She might have been happy just playing nearby, but we took her on a 3000-mile journey from Dryden to Biloxi, MS, where my father grew up. My parents were there for most of April, and we joined them for a great week of visiting with family and seeing the Gulf Coast. (I don't think I'd been there since 1981 or so, so there was a lot of catching up to do!)

Sungiva was amazing on the trip. I'd worried more and more that maybe we should fly, but it all worked out. She wasn't always happy to be in the car seat, of course, and there was some screaming, but generally she was far easier than I'd dared hope. Angelika stayed in the back seat with her, so even when she wasn't sleeping, she wasn't alone.

Sungiva reaches out from her car seat

She wasn't always stuck in the seat - she got to play in the sand and the grass, too. She seems especially fond of small stones.

Sungiva asks for the binoculars at the beach.

Sungiva enjoys the grass after a long day's drive.

It wasn't all travel, though. She also got to spend some time at home, enjoying her toys.

Sungiva plays with her panda.

She got up to much, much, much, much more of course. I've posted a gallery.

Varna Community Association meeting Monday

It's not quite as tasty as a pancake breakfast, but the Varna Community Association needs residents to come to its annual meeting on Monday, May 11th at 7:00pm. The meeting is at the community center, 943 Dryden Road, and will include a report of what the VCA's been doing and the election of new board members.

(And there will be a pancake breakfast Sunday, May 10th, from 8:00am to noon.)

Lane puts hat in; Hattery pulls hat out

It's starting to be County Legislature election season again.

I was delighted to hear that Mike Lane was running for the County Legislature seat representing the east side of Dryden. At the time I was guessing it would be a rematch with Mike Hattery, who won a close race four years ago. Hattery, though, isn't running. It'll be interesting to see who runs on the Republican side.