A visit to Big Red

Every once in a while your life takes funny turns and we have had one of those situations. There was this house on Symphony Circle that Howard and I looked at a couple of years ago and thought about buying. Well, it was mostly me. I loved this house and I dragged Howard in to see it. That was a crazy year for me. I looked at all these houses and then I met Leonard Pennario and went to Califiornia.

This house on Symphony Circle, we called it Big Red because it would have been the little sister of Big Blue. See that picture above? That is Big Red visible at the far left.

There were many things about Big Red we loved including that when you are heading down Wadsworth Avenue from Allen Street, Big Red looms over the end of the street. It is as if the world leads to Big Red! But the trouble was, Big Red was all but gutted. There were just holes in the floor where bathrooms were. It would have taken a ton of work and money and it was hopeless so we just went home.

And that was the situation.

Until now. Recently we found that Big Red was bought by my cousin Katie and her husband Pat. Katie is my Uncle James' daughter, my Uncle James who gave me away for my wedding. We saw them at Uncle James' on New Year's Eve and she asked me: "Did you look at a house on Symphony Circle?"

And I said, "Yes!"

She said, "The realtor told me someone from The Buffalo News had looked at it and I knew it was you!"

The other night, Howard and I got together with Katie and Pat and we showed them Big Blue and they then took us around Big Red. And then we dined at Prospero, this wonderful new Italian place across from Kleinhans Music Hall.

Walking around Big Red I could not believe my eyes.

What a difference!

I was just standing there with my mouth open!

I could not get over it because I never imagined that I would ever be walking into that house again, let alone in my stocking feet, carrying a glass of red wine. That is a phrase I love, in your stocking feet. Anyway. You know how it is when you look at a house, it dominates your mind for a while. But I never thought Big Red would cross my radar again. Now here I was in it! Having a glass of wine! Rejoicing with Katie and Pat about how great it looked.

I am so happy for all of them: Katie, Pat and Big Red. And their children, and their dogs and cats. They have two of the greatest dogs, big, heavy Labs with big wide heads.

Just to give you an idea of Big Red's magnificence here is a picture of Howard in the shower.