Busy and confused
It was a really intense weekend. Shoreowners association had two big events, one each day. My mother and Mark were here, arriving Friday and leaving this morning. I took Friday off to prepare for their visit. That turned out to be great because I had stuff pretty much set for them by late morning so I could spend time sitting on the dock in the sun (my goal in life).

Liza and Mark are fine and had a grand time. Very relaxing. My mother had several activities in mind but she would let each one fall as the time came to do them. We ended up staying at camp and she didn't do a thing, really except relax and read. Mark worked on crossword puzzles. They both read some of Jenica's romances and Liza read a Saint book by Lesley Charteris. Molly was an avid reader of those when she was young and Liza was curious about them.

I had a Hawkeye Conservationist road cleanup and picnic on Saturday. It was fine but hot picking up garbage. Fred was my partner so at least we laughed a lot. The picnic was ok, especially when this guy I used to hang out with after Jamie first left showed up. He was in college then and now he's married (about to be divorced) and has two little girls. It was great to see him but I'm sorry he still hasn't got his shit together.

Sunday morning I spent in my kayak with my friend Mary Kay, then I had some premium dock time with Mark. In the afternoon I spent 6 hours with the Conservationists at a meeting. There's a big deal being made about the new tax assessments this year. The assessments on two lakes in the town went way up--some as much as 100%, but only assessments on these 2 lakes were done, none in any other part of town. 150 out of 850 properties were re-assessed, and some people in our group are convinced this is illegal so they've hired an attorney and want the organization to back them. I didn't want the organization to get involved (we're the CONSERVATIONISTS, supposed to be interested in conserving the natural stuff around the lake) but we had a record crowd for the meeting and everyone was hot to have us solicit financial support from our members and join in a class action suit. So there you go--majority rules. They formed a committee and I hope I'm not involved. I'm the secretary of the organization, have been for years. Linda is president. One of the committee members, one of the 2 who have hired the attorney asked me to chair the committee ("We need you") because no one was willing to be the chairperson. What's with these people? I said I'd see. No, I sure don't want to do this.

This morning after Liza and Mark left I went home to discover that my pump was running and there was water squirting out of the pressure valve. The sump pump was squirting a huge spray of water into the air, not into the pipe that goes out of the cellar. AUGH!!! I shut everything off and walked away. Looked at all the plumbers listed in the yellow pages and tried to figure out what to do next. Got some suggestions from people here at work, which I'll try tonight. I have no money to deal with this. Then I discovered that the pump in my fish tank quit working and the sides of the tank, the gravel and the plastic plants are coated with disgusting fuzz. That I can fix myself but it will be a drag. One fish died and the others are pretty logey.

All I really want to do is stop at Linda's for a drink and go home to the boat house, sit on the porch until 10 then go to bed. Not to be, not to be. I still have to mow my lawn and there's still a huge pile of firewood to attack. Plus Ken wants me to order firewood for him, and I should order 4 more cords for myself at the same time. blahblahblah. whinewhinewhine.

But all in all my life is not so bad. I can shower at camp or swim in the lake while I figure out what to do about my plumbing. If the fish die I'll get more. Some night I'll feel like mowing my lawn. I have 2 barrels of rainwater to water my plants with and flush the toilet--although I can still turn on the pump and let it spray if I want to (though that can't be good for it). So life goes on.

At work I'm cataloging the Robert Louis Stevenson collection. 5 versions of The black arrow. I haven't got to the good stuff yet. I have to compare the OCLC record with each catalog card to see what tiny differences there might be between the two. And note every little thing. At least it's different from the videos that await me when I finish this batch of shelf-list cards. They'll just send me more when these are done, though.

That's what they pay me the big bucks for!