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My grandfather passed away on September 11th.
Naturally there are feelings of grief, sadness and in my particular case, mostly regret. Grief over the impact of such a great loss, and regrets about not calling enough, not visiting enough...and on and on the list goes.
The following obituary does more justice and describes DziaDzi in more precise of a manner then I could possibly accomplish. DziaDzi was a great man with a quiet strength and a strong presence who provided me with some great memories. My heart goes out to the whole family.
My sister had some amazing pics of him that captured him well. xoxoxo
 
Edward
W. Luczynski
(July 25, 1930 -
September 11, 2014)
Edward W. Luczynski , a long time
resident of Williamstown MA. died on Thursday September 11, at the age of 84.
He was born in Bayonne, N.J. on July 25, 1930, to the late Dr. Edward
and Lucille Luczynski. He attended St Peter’s Preparatory High School, Jersey
City and is a graduate of Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.. He
received his degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Jefferson Medical College
of Philadelphia in 1956. From 1958- 61 he served in the U.S. Army with the
rank of Captain completing a three year tour of duty at the U.S. Army
Hospital in Bremerhaven Germany. He was a solo practitioner in Dover N.J.
from 1963 until 1994. He specialized in Internal Medicine with a sub
specialty in arthritis and rheumatoid diseases.
After his retirement to Williamstown Edward became an active member of
Saints Patrick and Raphael parish and was a Eucharistic Minister. For 18
years he volunteered for Hospice of North Adams and was a long time
contributor to the Williamstown community.
He imparted to his family his love of reading, athletics and the
outdoors, which he pursued throughout his life. He also would have wanted his
Tunnel City Coffee Group to know how much their regular gatherings meant to
him.
In addition to his wife of 60 years, Sarah (O’Brien) Luczynski, he is
survived by his five children; Jan Day of Orr’s Island ME. ; Ned (Joy)
Luczynski of Tallahassee FL; Missy (Hubert) Holmes of Ridgefield CT; David
(Lisa) Luczynski of Statesville N.C.; and Ken Luczynski of Newport RI. He is
also survived by eleven grandchildren, eight -great grandchildren and a
sister Rita Brzezinski, of San Antonio Texas.
Funeral Notice: No calling hours. A Funeral Mass will be held on
Wednesday September 17, 2014 at 11:00 am at Saints Patrick and Raphael
Church, 63 Southworth St. Williamstown MA. Burial will be private. In lieu of
flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the St. Patrick's Food Pantry
or the Village Ambulance in care of Flynn & Dagnoli-Montagna Home for
Funerals Central Chapel 74 Marshall St. North Adams, MA 01247. To send a card
or a message, please visit www.flynndagnolifuneralhomes.com.
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Bliss
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
DziaDzi
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Recycle This.
I get it- recycling is critical to ensuring we have a planet to stand on in the future. Well don't shoot the messenger when I say sometimes I don't separate. Yup. That's right.
Get a gander of this.
I had to blow this picture up. Figuratively not literally..though the former thought has not been far from my mind. While I was not reduced to rocking in a corner and bawling my eyes out this week, I'd be lying if I said that was a scenario that had not previously occurred. This is a recycling nightmare. Everything occurs on a different day, a different week...labels and caps need to be removed from PET bottles. Items must be in a clear or semi-clear plastic bag, not opaque ...and for God's sake don't put your metal cap lids in with the PET caps. See my problem? Nobody's got time for that.
Seeing as we are not in an apartment building per se, our pick up for recycling/trash is around the corner from our home. The benefit to this? Our trash is combined with other designated apartments and it's hard to see where my trash starts and another person's ends. The downfall? The trash people totally know that the incorrectly sorted trash is mine.
*Deep Sigh*
Let me take you back in time to a Wednesday one month ago when I recycled bags of old clothes. By bags I mean BAGS. There was quite a lot to get rid of. So seeing as I had an old plastic comforter container to house nearly half of these clothes, I thought that would be two birds one stone. Yeah? Neah? MMM- Neah for days. I woke up early that morning- 5 AM and shook Will. Should I bring them now so they don't know it's me? If I go before dawn under the cover of darkness, would they still know it's me? He was not humored by my questions at such an early hour and frankly didn't care...which hurts my soul I must tell you. SO at 6, 2 1/2 hours early, I left with my bags. I'm pretty sure it began to rain...and then the bag broke. *Side Note* The comforter bag was there over one week. Clearly I had done it wrong....
*Deep Sigh*
I'm not alone in my angst. In speaking to other expats, they have shared that their trash has been ripped open in front of them, then adamantly told what goes where by drill sergeant building managers. They've gone secretly the night before to dispose of their trash when no one is looking and has been told to definitely not use transparent bags, because you will most certainly be judged.
My husband, in a moment of pure raw genius, disclosed with me one night that when we were away over the summer he recycled the PET bottles in various recycling bins around town. Genius. I took this idea and totally ran with it. Now? I'm that strange woman on Wednesday nights with the huge "purse" and dark sunglasses moving from vending machine to vending machine where all of the recycling bins are, depositing my unwanted plastic. No de-labeling, no de-capping = Bliss. Who'd have thought this is what my new idea of bliss would be? Life is so funny....and so the journey continues......
Get a gander of this.
Seeing as we are not in an apartment building per se, our pick up for recycling/trash is around the corner from our home. The benefit to this? Our trash is combined with other designated apartments and it's hard to see where my trash starts and another person's ends. The downfall? The trash people totally know that the incorrectly sorted trash is mine.
*Deep Sigh*
Let me take you back in time to a Wednesday one month ago when I recycled bags of old clothes. By bags I mean BAGS. There was quite a lot to get rid of. So seeing as I had an old plastic comforter container to house nearly half of these clothes, I thought that would be two birds one stone. Yeah? Neah? MMM- Neah for days. I woke up early that morning- 5 AM and shook Will. Should I bring them now so they don't know it's me? If I go before dawn under the cover of darkness, would they still know it's me? He was not humored by my questions at such an early hour and frankly didn't care...which hurts my soul I must tell you. SO at 6, 2 1/2 hours early, I left with my bags. I'm pretty sure it began to rain...and then the bag broke. *Side Note* The comforter bag was there over one week. Clearly I had done it wrong....
*Deep Sigh*
I'm not alone in my angst. In speaking to other expats, they have shared that their trash has been ripped open in front of them, then adamantly told what goes where by drill sergeant building managers. They've gone secretly the night before to dispose of their trash when no one is looking and has been told to definitely not use transparent bags, because you will most certainly be judged.
My husband, in a moment of pure raw genius, disclosed with me one night that when we were away over the summer he recycled the PET bottles in various recycling bins around town. Genius. I took this idea and totally ran with it. Now? I'm that strange woman on Wednesday nights with the huge "purse" and dark sunglasses moving from vending machine to vending machine where all of the recycling bins are, depositing my unwanted plastic. No de-labeling, no de-capping = Bliss. Who'd have thought this is what my new idea of bliss would be? Life is so funny....and so the journey continues......
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Deep thoughts and Big Girl Panties
Yesterday, despite my stomach and despite myself, I decided it was time to don the Big Girl Panties. One can only wallow for so long. SO... outfitted in my Big Girl "Drawers" I put on my exercise clothes prior to shuffling Wyatt out the door for school. I've been doing this just about every morning, and it has actually been my singular motivator for doing something each day.
Today, still not wanting to overdo my shaky disaster of a stomach, I decided to take a long walk along the river. It's just amazing. It's hard to wallow when you're walking and what a fabulous way to see the city you're living in while not getting lost. I mean even I can do it. I walked one side of the river and then coming home walked the other side. Bam. Five miles. As is the norm during my time of exercise, I do a lot of thinking, writing and talking to myself. World Peace is essentially solved within the hour. The conversation and thoughts whirring in my head were not new....just recycled, mostly all having to do with the stark differences between Taiwan and Japan. The first? Birds. Big Freaking Birds. They're huge and they're out to get me . I hate them for it. Today they had me me cornered and in a sweat, walking and talking to each other like grown men, smack in the middle of the bike/walking path. I decided the best thing to do was not to look them directly in their eyes....or they'd surely poke them out.
While I've only been here a short period of time, it just appears to me as if things are very orderly and precise. If it's 10:00 at night and there is nary a car on the road and the crosswalk is screaming at you not to move a muscle, you don't go..period. Apparently it's only the real bad asses who disobey crosswalk signs. I'm pleading the fifth on this one.....but um...I'm sure I'll fit in just fine.......?!
OK. So not the best example. One more for reference, Will and I were at Costco and there were two escalators. Everyone was going to the one the right, leaving one fully functional escalator empty. Naturally, Will and I went on the empty one, and then people followed shortly thereafter...but there seems to be hesitation to "break out." I learned a lot more about Japanese culture within our intercultural training and it was absolutely fascinating. While there appears to be the "group think" mentality, the reasoning and cultural decision making process as to why things are done a particular way, carries far more significance then we can fathom and cannot be taken at sheer face value.
Taiwan on the other hand, from my experience is an open, effusive culture. The open markets, the lively chatter, the lovely Taiwanese who knew a bit of English and still felt comfortable enough approaching me and engaging me within conversation....Taiwan many days felt like a warm embrace.
Japan, as I mentioned earlier is a bit more reserved-perhaps more of a hearty handshake...or a deep bow... until they feel more comfortable to gravitate into that embrace. I feel myself smiling more to force others to smile back at me. Yet, in fairness, there were a couple occasions when I've appeared near tears on the street staring blankly at my stupid google map and I've been approached to see if I need help. Japan is playing with my frail emotions. Ultimately though, I can't just sit on my haunches here. I need to get out there. If I need help? I need to seek out answers. There is no community center here. There are a lot less organized groups. I need to make an effort! Thank God I've got these Big Girl Panties on. *GAH-(My first day of volunteering is tomorrow......we shall see how that goes!)
Like Taiwan, Hiroshima is packed full of history and culture. It's completely a surreal experience.
Taiwan on the other hand, from my experience is an open, effusive culture. The open markets, the lively chatter, the lovely Taiwanese who knew a bit of English and still felt comfortable enough approaching me and engaging me within conversation....Taiwan many days felt like a warm embrace.
Japan, as I mentioned earlier is a bit more reserved-perhaps more of a hearty handshake...or a deep bow... until they feel more comfortable to gravitate into that embrace. I feel myself smiling more to force others to smile back at me. Yet, in fairness, there were a couple occasions when I've appeared near tears on the street staring blankly at my stupid google map and I've been approached to see if I need help. Japan is playing with my frail emotions. Ultimately though, I can't just sit on my haunches here. I need to get out there. If I need help? I need to seek out answers. There is no community center here. There are a lot less organized groups. I need to make an effort! Thank God I've got these Big Girl Panties on. *GAH-(My first day of volunteering is tomorrow......we shall see how that goes!)
Like Taiwan, Hiroshima is packed full of history and culture. It's completely a surreal experience.
How many people can walk by the A-Bomb dome or take a run at night past the lit up Hiroshima Castle? I'm certainly not taking those moments for granted by any means.
Other little things I saw on my walk:
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| I'm not sure what type of business this was- it didn't appear to be a school- but their outdoor gardens and climbing flowers were just beautiful. |
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| Like Taiwan, the older generation stays active and appears to lead healthy social lives. |
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| I just thought this was cool because I'm a dork. It's a bus wash. I presume that all the busses go through this upon returning from their runs? Who knows. Cool nonetheless. |
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| I've got this. At least for today. |
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