It's going to rain for the rest of our lives
We seem to have gone from one meteorological extreme to another. Hard to believe that a week ago I was roasting in the sun on my deck, then sitting in a cool breeze warmed by the sun on the boat house porch. It's rained for 6 days and the forecast is for 6 more days of cloudiness with a chance of rain each day. Yikes. I wanted to cover my wood pile last night but discovered that I had given my tarp away. Then I remembered the time I gave it to Ken because I was sure I wasn't going to use it. Well you can't be generous and use the things you give away at the same time, can you.

Columbus Day weekend was much quieter this year, which would have been nice if I'd made good use of the time. Instead I spent the weekend on the couch watching DVD's of last seasons "The O.C." and other worthless things on TV. I wanted to stack my wood but my belief is that it's not a good idea to stack wet wood because then it will stay wet and will take much longer to dry. I did sort my t-shirts, producing a big pile for the Salvation Army and a smaller pile for Erdvilas, who said he wanted all the x-larges I was getting rid of. Now I can actually see what clothes I have on the shelves in my bedroom. There are more piles of clothes screaming for attention (sometimes so loudly they keep me up at night) but I will get to them. I will leave hidden the pants that are 1 and 2 sizes smaller than I am currently wearing in the hopes that I will lose enough of the 20 pounds I gained back after I lost 40 pounds two years ago. Miracles happen, don't they?

Linda and Erdvilas arrived Saturday for a week. I have spent a lot of time with them, enjoying their company a whole lot. Last night Linda and I did the NY Times crossword together, laughing the entire time. It was great. Doing crosswords with another person is fun but tricky.

Saturday afternoon there was a cocktail party that I didn't have to host. It was supposed to be on the porch of a camp owned by a former camper, at one of the nicest camps on the lake, but he had it inside instead. There was a big crowd, bigger than the crowd I would have had at the party I was planning. I had a really nice time and liked being with all my friends there.

Sunday night was the fancy party for Bill's birthday at Plattsburgh's best restaurant. One of the highlights was that I got to sit in the new MiniCooper owned by one of our friends. She offered a chance to drive it but for some stupid reason I declined. Now I wish I had driven it. Anyway, the party was nice but not spectacular. Twelve of us, all very good friends, some of whom have known Bill for 45 years.

Monday night Linda cooked dinner for Rush, Annie and me. We had a great time. Rush loves being with his Hawkeye friends, taking a break from being a Congressman, so he is always in rare form. Annie loves being here so she is always warm and loving. It was a nice evening.

Last night Linda cooked dinner for Ken, Bill and me. Our usual Weds. night fete. We had a nice time and I ate too much but did not drink too much.

I had the first fire of the season in my wood stove on Saturday. The temp. in my living room was 59, and though I wasn't really cold in the morning I knew I would get chilled eventually so I set about starting a fire. Well, it turns out that when I had my last fire in the spring I just shut the door to the stove and left it. So I spent 45 minutes cleaning the ashes and stovepipe before I could light the fire. But now all is set for the season. I know the stovepipe from the elbow to the top outside is ok because I had it cleaned last winter and it's the kind that doesn't need to be cleaned often. So I had a fire, a good warm fire, and it got to be 75 in the living room and the dogs were panting like mad. It stayed warm all weekend. Last night I lit another fire because when I got home from work it was 56 in the living room.

Tuesday we had a reception for our new director from 3-6 and I stayed for the whole thing. It was really nice and drew a good crowd. Lots of member library directors and a few member lib. trustees came, which was great. The N.D. is very nice and so far seems fair-minded, with some new ideas that are ok and will work out for us. I had a long meeting with her yesterday about my job: what I do and how I do it. She said I had a lively personality. That's one way to put it, isn't it. So far we've had a lot of nice conversations about many things. And I'm not nervous about saying the wrong thing, or revealing too much, or making myself vulnerable when I talk to her. What a novel situation to find myself in with a supervisor.