WHEW!
Columbus Day weekend is almost the busiest weekend of the year in my neighborhood. Lots of great friends and lots of fantastic food (and drink). Friday night I had dinner with the Holts and their builder. Bob the Builder is a staunch Democrat and was thrilled to have an audience with a Democratic Congressman. Lots of heated ramblings about what's wrong with Congress and the B. Administration, individual by individual. It was nice to see Rush and Annie, and their house is really pretty. I'll get pictures soon.

Friday morning my pump was running when I got up, and no water came out of the faucets. This means BIG TROUBLE. I spent the weekend without running water, which seems to be my natural state these days. I went to Linda's camp Saturday afternoon to take a shower but she'd shut off the hot water heater in September so it was the coldest shower I've ever taken. Stand next to the shower and dip the appropriate body parts under the water. It was so cold I got a headache when I washed my hair.

Saturday evening I had cocktails, which turned into dinner with friends from Boston who bought a camp a few (maybe five) years ago. They are the most enthusiastic members of our group right now, and they have a wonderful camp (the Peabody's camp, to those in the know).

After dinner Saturday I went back to Linda's (having turned on the water heater) and built a fire so it would be warm and cheery when Linda and Erdvilas arrived. Mission accomplished, and Linda and I had a great visit. Too much to drink, unfortunately and Sunday morning I felt really crummy.

The weather was gorgeous all weekend, sunny and warm. Sunday was the Big Day. My cocktail party on the boat house porch at 5, followed by Thanksgiving Dinner at Linda's at 6:30. All went swimmingly. There were 14 at dinner, and about 12 at my party. I was impressed by how many different kinds of liquor I could gather from my larder--we had just about everything. Dinner was wonderful, as usual. Good turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy.

Monday was another sterling day. I got to sit on my deck and read every morning over the weekend. I chased Tess into the boardwalk twice, which continued my exercise regime. I tried tying her up twice but each time she surreptitiously chewed the rope and flew off to the bog ("My people are calling for me--they NEED me!"). I didn't do much during the day, relaxed and watched TV. Oh, I can do that for an amazing amount of time.

Monday night it was back to Linda's--she had a campfire for us to sit around. That night I called my plumber and he said he could come first thing Tuesday morning. He's great: he feels that, when someone has no water that constitutes and emergency.

Plumber man came Tuesday and man did I learn a lot about pumps, pipes and wells. Turns out not only had the pump lost its prime but the line from the house to the well was dry too. This is a huge deal, since the line is about 400 feet long and buried 6' underground. John poured gallon after gallon down the pipe, waiting each time for air to replace water in the pipe. I lay on my stomach, talked and watched what he was doing in the hole that is my cellar. I had to make two water runs; we used up all we had right away. Finally, 14 gallons later he decided to try the pump. It sucked air for a long time, then a little water and air, and finally ***MIRACLE*** it sucked water from the well. In the meantime he measured how much water I have in my well (and clearly did not think that was enough to support me) and recorded it on the well tile. This whole exercise took 3 hours of patient and charming work. He is great and is so nice to me. It's amazing what a difference it makes when you can turn on a faucet and have water come out, that's just such a cheerful activity. Now I will continue to conserve water as I have been doing for weeks. I'm getting good at it, way good at it.

In my mail was a letter addressed to Tess the Bog Dog. It was from a couple in Texas who met Tess on the boardwalk. They included a photo of Tess with the woman, and a picture of the man standing somewhere in Texas. They got my address from the tag Tess wears all the time, which has her name, address and phone number on it. Anyway, these people said if I'm ever near Austin I should give them a call. Or maybe that part was intended for Tess, who knows. They said their walk with Tess was the highlight of their trip to the Adirondacks. What the heck else did they do?

Tuesday night I had dinner at Linda's with Fred (turkey soup, of course) and Bill and a friend stopped by. It just doesn't take much to have a party in my neighborhood--especially when Linda's in camp. That was a good visit and I went home at a reasonable hour.

Last night was dinner with Ken (Weds., of course). I had invited Linda & E to join us and made meatloaf. Finally found a good recipe online, one worth using again. Ken likes having a crowd like that, and Fred joined us on his way home from Elizabethtown, where he'd been at a high school soccer game. All very cheery and nice--and not too much to drink, home at 8:15, in time to watch TV and relax with the dogs.

Today I'm working until 5 and will do my laundry at some point during the day. Laundromat across the street is good, has huge washers. Washing clothes at a laundromat isn't so bad when you have a dryer at home. Only takes about half an hour or so, and you can watch the other people or read.

There is a new group of people in camp now, the male friends who come for Extreme Workfest are here with their wives. It's not supposed to be very nice for the next few days, colder and rainy. It was really warm this morning, though, and slightly damp. Really nice Indian summer day. Ken says you can't have Indian summer until you've had a killing frost. We've come close enough, down to 27 on Sat. morning. Lots of frost and once time my windshield wipers were stuck to the windshield with ice. Must find my windshield scraper.

Tonight I hope to walk the bog, must get back in the habit of doing that. I missed Monday night's walk around Mirror Lake so I'm already behind in my walking. I took a look at the South Beach diet and am trying to follow the basic tenets of it. Based on the glycemic index: no sugar, only certain carbs because other ones have sugar in them, combine carbs with either fiber or oil to slow down the production of insulin. It's not hard but I shouldn't drink apple cider because it's high in fructose. I love fresh cider but would really like to lose weight so will abstain. It's amazingly hard to give up white-floured foods. The sugar part isn't too bad if I use artificial sweeteners in my coffee and iced tea (blech). Let's see where this takes us.

And now...the Robert Louis Stevenson Collection from Saranac Lake. Yesterday I cataloged a map, 2 pamphlets and a collection of typewritten sheets for Plattsburgh Public. Original cataloging, had to consult both the list of subject headings and the cataloging manual. Yikes.