Where does the time go? It's Tuesday already. There's been a weekend in there somewhere, and there was a disastrous Monday as well. Friday was a good day, I remember that. Work was troublesome but bearable. Much strife still vis a vis union and management, an issue that continues to plague. But Friday night I went out with Brook, my friend of nearly 20 years (are we really old enough to have friends who are NOT childhood friends, whom we've known for 20 years? why yes, we are). Started out as drinks, had a nice time at the bar--when was the last time I met someone at a bar and "had drinks?" Long time ago. Then we had dinner together. It was a lovely evening. We spent our lives together many years ago, two lives ago, but we can still connect, are still friends. Two people can go separate ways, not communicate for a long time but still know a good, solid, affectionate friendship and mutual respect for one another. I can't picture her life and she can't picture mine--but like my friend Mary Frances, my friend Brook will always be my friend, someone I will always love and will always have in my life. It was a really nice evening and I felt wonderful all the way home, smiling. What a great visit. Who enjoys dogs the same way we do? Not too many people--we have just the right perspective, just the right amount of affection and respect for them. Yes, I let that crazy Tess sleep under the covers, but I know she's just a dog, not a person.

Then we had the weekend, which I admit was pretty much a blur. I slept a lot. Maybe sleeping off my trip, I don't know. Decompressing. Cleaned my house very little. Sunday dinner was really nice, huge steaks cooked on the grill because Bill and I weren't here for Fathers Day so we had our celebration with Ken. Bill fresh back from Ireland and feeling very cheery about his trip. His first vacation in 12 years. I could never do that, go without a vacation. He's remarkable. Or crazy. Anyway, great sense of comradery, great conversation, great food. Beautiful day. That night I had dinner (more beef--meatloaf) with my friend the Congressman and his wife, along with 5 men who are former campers and have the camp just down from my house. These guys are so cute I adore them. They come every June and every October to open and close their camp. They're really, really nice. One is now a judge so we talked about some of his cases. Other peoples' lives are always so interesting. We had a nice evening. I made them guess which campers I used to go off into the woods to make out with. They finally guessed one, but not the other. Fortunately they thought both were cool guys. whew! This was in the 60's, hard to believe! One of these trysts lasted for 4 years, hard for me to believe. Anyway, we sat in front of the fire in their great stone fireplace after dinner, while the campers all reminisced and played trivia, and Annie and I laughed and laughed at their memories. They must have been the cutest boys on the planet.

Yesterday was a terrible day. Missed a doctor's appointment in the morning, misunderstood what time it was supposed to be for, so was late for work. Big fuss about union business, we were issued ultimatum by board's attorney, without being given enough information to make a real decision, I had to track down all the members (ok, there are only 9, but 4 were on the road yesterday), set up a meeting for today, explain the proposal, deal with cross people, etc. Plenty of hostility directed at me, at the board, at the world. Then I left early for the rescheduled appointment, to discover that my left eye is getting cloudy, slowly, because part of the cataract I had removed 7 or so years ago is still there. This is not unusual when younger people have cataracts removed, and can be remedied with a laser, which will come later, much later, but it's discouraging to someone who was already having a bad day. The cloudiness is worse this year than it was last year. But I'm getting a new kind of lens this year that will make it easier for me to use the computer at work and should ease up on my neck and shoulder strain. God I love getting old. Back to bifocals for work, trifocals for the rest of my life.

Then home to think about my brother and cry. Why then? As we all know, it comes upon us suddenly. This time it came upon me as I was using the path he cut for me through my woods, a short cut to my friends' camps. I love that path, and it was so cool that he did that. "You should have a path through these woods." He loved doing things like that, and that path has lasted so well. I have to make sure it stays a path but I don't have a chain saw to cut up the tree that's lying diagonally across the bottom of the path. I had dinner with Rush & Annie last night, really nice time with them. Planning the house they'll be building there next year. Annie said she'll take over the tree removal project that Henry had been working on. She loves using her chain saw. This, believe it or not is a huge relief to me. Someone needs to continue the work he started in creating and maintaining the view from my hill. She and I can work together on that really well. Nothing this year, but when their house is done and she retires (2-3 years) she'll be here enough time to play in the woods with me. That should work out really well. Maybe by then I'll have my own chain saw too. That would be cool beyond cool.

Meanwhile I have to order firewood, get a plane ticket, order lumber for my deck, pay my mortgage, make my car payment, pay my car insurance and some other bills. Using what for money? Got to buy those lottery tickets.

Supposed to be in the 80's for the rest of the week. It was 37 the other morning. I'm not staying at camp, it's too cold for me. Water temp at Silver Lake is now 66, according to Rush's thermometer. Suspicious, if you ask me. Maybe our docks will go in this weekend. I need to start reading the next book for our book group. White teeth, by Zadie Smith. I'm finishing up a really good book, The strange event of the dog in the night time (I think that's it), first person narrative fiction by an autistic boy. It's short but effective. Not really about a dog.

Dogs. Boy are they dominating my life these days. They're roaming way too much. Had to retrieve them the other day. Have been asked to keep them at home more. Must let them out one at a time. Can't be outside with all of them at once unless we're all on the deck together with a gate across the stairs. This is not the life I had intended for us. Will not, not, not walk them on a leash. Everyone loves that Tess, she's a sweetie, they say. And Jackson is a nice boy, a very nice old dog. But the people renting Bill's camp don't want them around their nasty dog who stays inside and barks that them. I guess I understand that. And I don't want my dogs roaming but I don't know how to break them of the habit. Damn that Jackson! Tess wouldn't have thought of it on her own, she and Chances never left the perimeter of the house and yard before he came into our lives. I need to exercise them more, that's really the key. Exercise? That word again.

And now I have to evaluate my two employees. Performance characteristics. 9 for each of them. Long descriptions of the last year's worth of their work. Let's be honest now, and let's try to think of nice things to say. yeah, sure. That won't be too much of a challenge...