You've got to have friends
So sang Bette Midler in 1974. I had dinner last night with as fine a crop of friends as anyone could imagine. It was at Bill's camp The Owl, just below my house, which is now being rented by the Camerons (the man who took my father's course in college). They hosted a second dinner party, the first was last week. Ken, Bill, Duncan and his wife and son, Ed (former counselor), Phil and Elsa (hosts) and their son Daniel who is a senior in choir college and sings baritone opera. I've known Daniel since he was about 10 and I really, really like him. I got to sit next to him at dinner so we had a chance to kid each other the way we always have. He's a really nice person and very, very sweet.

Anyway, since I'm so crazy about Duncan and got to sit across from him at dinner I got to have the full effect of his charm all evening. He is a wonderful person and is really funny. After dinner Ed, Bill and Duncan regaled us with camp and counselor tales. Like the time they were with 14 little campers on Mount Marcy and it was night, Duncan and Bill were responsible for removing the garbage and were walking away from camp in the dark with flashlights. In the dark they spotted two glowing orbs, far apart : the eyes of a big bear. Duncan said Bill turned and ran back to camp in record time. The following morning they found Bill's flip-flops in exactly the spot where they spotted the bear, just like a cartoon he'd spun around & run out of his shoes. I love picturing Bill as Billy, the camp counselor who fooled around with the others, because now he's entirely proper and very private as a public figure, a Vice President at the university.

Another time it was Duncan the Counselor's responsibility to go from cabin to cabin, putting the little campers to bed. One cabin wanted him to tell them a story. He made up the story that since it had been such an unusually dry summer the bears had been coming down out of the woods into camps just up the lake. The head of the camp had been keeping it a secret and didn't want anyone to know it, but bears had already killed 2 people. Being little campers of course they believed him, and after he left they ran up to the main building and told Mrs. Hartz what he'd said, asking if it were true. No, she assured them it wasn't true, but Duncan said she did think it was a funny story.

Then there was the time, as adults, our friend Richard had the business of making glow-in-the dark dots. They had lined the walls of one of the bedrooms in their camp with them and Bill was sleeping in that room one night. Ed put dots on his eyebrows and on the tips of his fingers and hid until Bill was in bed and in total darkness started moving around the room. Bill said he can still picture the image of the moving dots.

These stories and these boys remind me so much of my brother and his friends: males who've been friends since childhood who just have a lot of fun and a lot of history together. Men have different relationships with each other than women do--each are special and wonderful, but men have this playful element that is fun to witness and to hear about. They seem to genuinely enjoy each other's company and I love to watch it. I have my women friends from junior high school and they're really great, and my friends I've known for 25 years, etc. Our bonds are very deep and intense, and we laugh a lot. We've been through a lot together and we rely on each other to mark the events of our lives, for support and comfort, to make each other laugh, to keep us company and so on. Relationship history can be great.

Other things going on? The Cousins leave camp today. I was down there this morning and they were up, dealing with children. The living room looked as if refugees from Boznia had moved in. I'm sure they'll get it in order, but I sure don't envy them. Their 2 sets of friends have left. I may go down there tonight and enjoy the silence, but I have 2 of Bill's workers coming to my house tomorrow morning at 10 to help me stack firewood (at $10 an hour each). I'm thrilled at the prospect, have been totally stalled on this project. It's supposed to be 80 so I know I'd never touch a stick if I didn't have this pressure. No, I don't want to do this tomorrow morning, I want to sit on the dock and read and swim. This wood, however, needs to be stacked and covered so that I can burn it this winter.

My well continues to be a big problem. I forgot to shut the pump off yesterday and was hysterical all day, convinced it would run the whole day and burn itself out. Huge relief when I rushed home at 4 to total silence in the house--all was as it should be. When I got home from dinner, however, the pump was running. RATS! I think the well is just not filling up but I need to measure it to be sure. I haven't measured it for several days, being an optimist and assuming it was filling. Au contraire.

Took the dogs to the vet Weds night. They are both fine, for $159 thank you very much. No heartworms and distemper-proof for another year. Chances had her hot spot treated and I was patted on the back for using the right stuff to keep it from getting worse. Lucky guess on my part that the cream I found was the right cream--vet meds are hard to figure out. Anyway, apparently Chances has some allergy and is now on antihistamines and I have a new tube of the yellow cream, which I will label with a Sharpie. Tess behaved terribly and was a great embarrassment to me. Chances was a model citizen and both the vet and the assistant said "This is what a Lab is supposed to be like." They both adore Chances anyway. Chances weighs 64, exactly what she weighed last year. Tess is 49, petite little thing. There were 2 huge but gorgeous male Labs in the waiting room. They were absolutely incredibly beautiful but way too big to suit me. They came from a Canadian breeder. Perfectly proportioned, great heads, perfect tails. But too big for the breed standard. And still I search for that perfect Lab. Chances is close, very close. I've been much nicer to her since I took her there, being reminded by others what a wonderful dog she is. Man does she like that!

Now I must search the bookmobile for the 6-page list of books that are supposedly "Checked-in" but read "In Cataloging" in our automated system so that I can change their status, one by one. A fine project for a Friday, no? The best thing of all? I can call my sister any time I want to. She's only 350 miles away!