Monday, July 31, 2006

Snakeman


Snakeman
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
Not a photo for the squeamish. I post this one first because Molly pointed out to me how funny it can be to have certain photos under the heading of my blog. No, I never knew it would be like this. This is Chris, who helped me stack firewood on Saturday morning. It was incredibly hot and humid but I spent 2 hours with 2 young men who played with each of the 6 snakes we found in my woodpile. Yuck. I don't mind an occasional snake, but I was pretty grossed out by finding that many. Anyway, we got nearly all of my 6 cords stacked, plus moved the cord I had leftover from last winter into the wood shed. So far so good. I have about half a cord left to stack, then I can order 4 more cords, stack it and I should be all set for this winter.

Nursery cat


Nursery cat
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is Maggie the Nursery Cat. On Saturday afternoon I rewarded myself with a trip to a wonderful plant nursery in the mountains with Fred. They were having a sale on day lilies. There were 2 Nursery Cats but we didn't meet Oscar. Both Fred and I wanted to put Maggy in the trunk of his car along with the lilies we bought and take her home with us. I saw Fred coo and tickle her. If you knew Fred you'd know how amazing that is. She is an incredibly sweet and personable cat, and is a beautiful color.

Field of Dreams


Field of Dreams
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
Fred in his Field of Dreams. He loves day lilies and collects them. This is the field where they have their Mother Plants, where they get the plants they sell from. Lots of varieties, all colors, some double blossoms (which I hadn't really seen before). We had a whole lot of fun looking at each variety together.

Yellow lily


Yellow lily
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
I didn't buy this one but isn't it pretty?

Lily


Lily
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
Nope, didn't buy this one either

ER


ER
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
The tag on this one said "ER" so I was hopeful that it had a cool name. Not so, however, its name is Eruption. Yuck. I bought it anyway because it's a beautiful color. When it spreads it will offer a really pretty patch of red.

Dawn Time


Dawn Time
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is the other lily I bought: Dawn Time II. It's slightly fragrant, which is why I bought it.

Parking lot view


Parking lot view
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
The view from the parking lot. This is the Jay Range. Fred and I just kept saying "Wow, this is so beautiful."

Nursery home


Nursery home
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is where the people who own the nursery live. Not bad, not bad.

Sunday morning


Sunday morning
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is what it looked like from the boat house deck at 6:30 Sunday morning. It was cold, 50 degrees according to Fred's thermometer. I got up anyway and sat on the porch reading the autobiographical cookbook I was supposed to review for Library Journal in July. I had a blanket and dog on my lap to keep me warm. I finally realized that the sun was warming the dock so I went down there and warmed up. Fred came along in his kayak and we had a nice visit--Tess swam out to meet him. Then he paddled on and I read some more until Sunday dinner. It's a nice neighborhood, this one.

Conjoined twins


Conjoined twins
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
After an exhausing weekend of supervising wood stacking, swimming, playing with my cousins' puppy (Hunter), my conjoined twins took a well-deserved break on the boat house porch. So did I.

Friday, July 28, 2006

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!

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Well well well
And the obsession continues. I measured the well on Friday and it had risen about an inch. Sigh of relief. Sunday night the pump came on and wouldn't shut off. Measured the well. Much lower. Dismay. Shut pump off: no water, punishment for too many flushes, reckless behavior. Turned pump on (optimist) last night, used tiniest bit of water, pump behaved as if there were water in the well. Left pump on overnight, awoke to sound of pump running. This can only mean there isn't enough water in the well for the pump to come up to pressure. This can only suck wad. Maybe tonight I'll measure the level in the well, maybe I'll just give up.

This morning I showered at camp. It's so peaceful there at 6:30, but lo by 6:45 2 cousins, their 3 year old and 1 year old were up and about. Tess was sitting under the dinner table hoping for a taste of applesauce and cleaning up crumbs accumulated from the past 4 days of children eating at the table. Beth & Wayne didn't mind, they like my dogs. Child didn't mind, they have dogs so she was enchanted by the chocs. I didn't mind but did have trouble rounding up My Dogs. Finally went home. It poured really, really hard most of the way to work--I can only hope it did the same at home, but there's no guarantee, as forecast calls for "scattered showers." Let's hope I hear the sump pump sing tonight and there's not a leak in my well that's draining the water. I don't see how I can have used so much water, but I don't really know how much an inch of water in my well equals. Not very much, I guess.

Tonight I visit a laundromat, do some grocery shopping and, I think, buy 2 new fish. Tetras, is my guess. A little bit of color, but not enough to compete with the platys. Right now everyone is extremely happy and swimmingly healthy. They are very hungry, however, so I fed them extra portions last night. They gobbled them up like the Starving Armenians we heard about throughout our childhood (we lived in Turkey as children, where there were references to the cruelties imposed on the Armenians by the Turks). Ken has agreed to take my fish into his home while I am in Rhode Island in August. He seems to enjoy the company so I don't feel guilty about this imposition. I have finally, finally figured out how to balance nitrogen, temperature, algicide, etc. in the tank so I think I can keep this batch in good shape for a while. So far so good and it's been a pretty long time (for me).

Last night was a long board meeting, then home too late to take dogs to the vet. Chances has one of those disgusting hot spots on her neck and I've been treating it with what I think is the right stuff from a tube I found in my medicine cabinet. Veterinary meds don't say what they're for sometimes, the labels just identify what they are. I'm relying on my memory about this yellow creamy stuff and it seems to be helping dry up the grossitosis that she has. Anyway, I wanted to take them both in last night but had set up a visit from my neighbors/friends who are selling their camp (for $690,000) because they can no longer afford the taxes. I wanted to talk to them about why they're selling and to let them know details of the class action suit now going on against the town. That didn't change their minds: they know that, even if we win the suit eventually their taxes will be the $10,000 they currently are. Very sad situation, which we may face in more and more cases. Anyway we had a good visit. They lived in Lake Placid for a long, long time so know Jamie and his parents very well. We had a great time talking about Jamie's need to be the center of attention, to be recognized--which seems to be a family trait.

Tomorrow we're off to Ticonderoga to barcode their collection. This will involve 3 hours of travel (total) for 4 hours of barcoding. I think we'll have to give them more than our usual 2 team visits. After that I will pick up the dogs, re-trace my route and take them to the vet. Yes, by golly, I will. I have to. They need their distemper shots and heartworm tests. It's really late to have them tested and to put them on preventive meds but, you know, better late than never (but as my Grannie used to say "But better never late.").

Now I must try to figure out how to catalog the videos "Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason," episodes 103 and 2.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Holt's house


Holt's house
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is what Rush & Annie's house looks like now. It's really coming along and will be a very pretty house. Once the siding goes on it will really be beautiful.

Rush's silo


Rush's silo
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is the lake side (facing south). That's Rush's silo: on the top floor is a small room where he can look out over the lake, the mountains, the stars. It's really nice.

Bee balm


Bee balm
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
My red bee balm (Oswego tea). Red is a rarer color than the other plants I have, which are dark purple. I don't have much red, it doesn't seem to thrive. True to its name, the bees really like these flowers.

Lily


Lily
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
One of my day lilies. As usual, I don't know where or when I got it. It looks really pretty nestled among the ferns.

Duck watcher


Duck watcher
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is Tess watching the mama merganser that has just one baby. That merganser visits every time I'm at the boat house in the afternoon. It drives Tess crazy to have to watch from afar--she really wants to swim after the ducks, but I want the two to swim in peace. The baby played "I'm a Big Duck Now" and rose up out of the water to skim across the top, making big splashes. Very cute.

Pretty dog


Pretty dog
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
Isn't this one of the prettiest dogs there is? She's very photogenic, when she finally poses. This is Darling Tess in profile. From this shot she looks like a fine-looking Lab. In reality she's too small and fine-boned to be considered a good-looking Lab. She's a nice size in practical terms, though, light enough for me to pick up easily. And just as sweet as they come.

Friday, July 21, 2006

I'm hip to time
Who gets that reference? No one under 50, I'll bet.
I rushed to get ready this morning, drove to camp for my shower (more on that later, though I'm sure everyone can guess why), had time to stop for my latest indulgence, a large Dunkin' Donuts iced turbo (espresso-laden coffee), extra milk, 1 sugar, and still get to work by 7:45. Then I discovered I'm the 9:00 person today. So I can blog without feeling guilty. I have no pictures to post, must be feeling overwhelmed, or not so great or something.

Actually I am overwhelmed but I feel pretty much capable of dealing with things. I've been having a plumbing crisis all week. Plumber called, had my new tank, came to install it and I asked for a new pressure switch while he was working down there. OK, that should solve all my problems, right? He also gave me a piece of my sump pump's hose so I could go to Lowe's & show them what size I needed. What a great man he is. But not so my plumbing. When I got home the next day the pump was running--bad, very bad pump. I called him, message left, he called me next morning after I'd left, we finally connected and he came yesterday morning. New pressure switch (other new switch declared faulty), plus he brought a brand spanking new hose for my sump pump and installed it for me ("How did you know I wouldn't have replaced that yet?"). By now the dogs know John and his partner very well and have reached the stage of adoration without even knowing that he is responsible for their having water in their bowl (and toilet) each day. OK, John works a long time, we flush and flush, pump comes on and shuts off appropriately is declared cured. As always, "if you have any problems, call me."

I get home last night and the pump is not only running but it's hot (not just warm) to the touch and won't come up to pressure. This is extremely bad. I call him. "Oh no, no, what's going on here?!" We discuss various possibilities (this man is just incredibly nice to me) and it finally comes out that he used up 50-60 gallons of water during the course of his work down there, necessary to adjust the pressure switch. Not realizing that, I did a small load of wash yesterday after he left. And we flushed the toilet 3 unnecessary times while he was there. Bingo! There goes the contents of my well.

So here's what he tells me to do: lower a string down my well, measure how long the string is before it gets wet. Wait a day, repeat exercise to see if the well has risen. Ohmygod I hate dealing with my well, there's just something I really hate about directly addressing its inadequacy. I like to deal with it in the abstract--"my well." But it's time to take off the tarp, haul a ladder to where it is. By now there is a row of 6' high balsam trees across what was once a path, and lots of vegetation growing in the way. I laugh at myself. I heave off the 60-lb wellcap and with one look down I can tell the well is dry. A girl just knows these things. But I have dutifully tied and duct-taped a rock to the end of my twine, which I lower into the well. I tie a knot when I hear the kerplunk of stone hitting water. Tonight I will do the same, knowing what I will discover. Hopefully the pump has not been damaged, but apparently when the end comes they just shut down.

Meanwhile I can shower at camp and bring water home from work but I don't have very many gallon jugs to fill. Went grocery shopping last night and didn't get jugs of water because didn't know what was waiting for me at home. Will get some today. Last night I had to make cheesecake for the luncheon we're having today.

I went out for ice cream (to Hot Dog Man--really the Whitebrook Dairy Bar, but in front of it is a statue of a giant hot dog with high tops on, pouring ketchup on his head) with Fred. We completely enjoy each other's company so it was a really nice trip. I took the dogs and they loved it, plus provided great entertainment for all who were there. Stuck their heads out the windows and licked everyone as they walked by ("Hi! welcome to Hot Dog Man! My name is Tess!"). Anyway, we had fun and it was a nice distraction.

Wednesday I had dinner with Ken. Our friend Ann, who is the neighbor I've know all my life and is a caterer furnished us with the food. I stopped at Fred's first for a quick gin and tonic on his porch (a summer rite) before picking up the food. The food was so good I ate too much and felt really ill. Saturday night is dinner with Bill, Ken and the people who are renting Bill's camp (this is the man who had my father for a professor at Rockford College). Then my friend Duncan and his family arrive for 2 weeks. And a bunch, a BIG bunch of cousins will be in camp all next week. Then my sister comes--HOORAY--to Rhode Island next week. I talked to my mother last night, briefly because I was in the middle of things. She didn't sound too well. She has Lyme Disease, she's feeling overwhelmed, she's just depressed in general, and I think it's sometimes hard on her that I have so many people paying attention to me in the summer time and her social life (which she considers to be non-existent) stays the same. I remind her of all the things she does with other people but she doesn't consider that to be a social life. What can I do.

Now it's later and we just finished our weeding project outside the building. The director directed us to do it, then it turned out she couldn't participate because she has a meeting this morning. How directorial. It's muggy, very muggy out there. Because it rained this morning the weeds were pretty easy to pull, and we had good participation by staff members. Now it looks better out there and everyone feels we've had a good team effort.

And I have to correct the work I did yesterday afternoon because I was so sleepy I'm sure I made a gajillion typos.

Monday, July 17, 2006

JR3


JR3
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is my cousin, James Rogers III, addressing the dinner guests at this 50th wedding anniversary dinner. He is a very cheerful, optimistic and charming person (to lots of people, anyway). He loves being surrounded by his family. This is a very typical Jim Rogers pose.

The Ex


The Ex
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is my ex husband (in the white shirt) and his wife (in the white dress). I was on a quest to take pictures of all the people, table by table, but I gave up when there were too many photographers taking too many pictures and they all got in my way. Jamie and I sat back to back and actually exchanged words. I told him an anecdote about our old neighborhood. He really liked that, perked right up. Of course, he had to tell me something that HE knew about it. But I think that was just his way of trying to connect with me. It's the only way he really knows how to connect with people--to talk about what he knows rather than to listen to what they have to say, unless what they say has value to him. I used to like that about him but now I find it arrogant and boring. Anyway, he's pretty handsome and seems to be aging well. The Wife seems to be a pretty boring person and most people treat her as if she were invisible. Myself included. That's his sister's daughter straight ahead, who is one of my neatest relatives ever. Jenica and I had a really great time connecting with her. She's at a totally transitioinal point in her life right now, having graduated from college in May. She's an incredibly nice person.

Tess in the Lead


Tess in the Lead
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
Here's a picture of Tess swiming ahead of me, back to the dock after a nice short swim. Tess will swim out to you, swim around you (a little to close for comfort, but she's learning--she kicks you with her hind legs now), then swim back to shore. She'll let you hold on to her tail and she'll pull you to shore if you want a free ride. Since I need the exercise (without the frog kick) I don't do that very much, though. Jenica and I swam a few times yesterday and had a great time docking. A REALLY great time docking.

Chances Awaits


Chances Awaits
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
And this is what Chances did while we swam to the dock. She swims too, but not quite as much as Tess. Maybe it's because she can't see as well, or maybe it's because she's older and sees that swimming out to someone or something just to turn around and swim back to shore really has no purpose. She'll swim out to a boat or after ducks just about any old time, though. Her favorite thing is to lean way over the edge of the dock to get a drink of water, after taking a long nap on the end of the dock. Jenica took this picture.

Pink


Pink
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is what greets me at the foot of my deck stairs. It's amazing to me that a lily can thave this many blossoms look so proud and cheerful. It could be a bouquet all by itself. It sits on a single stem. If I knew where I bought it from I'd buy 5 more just like it.

JR3


JR3
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is my cousin (also my former father-in-law: guess that makes me a firm believer in incest) at the dinner celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary. He's happy here, and standing in a typical Jim Rogers pose. He's a very cheerful and optimistic man who loves having his family gathered around him.

Friday, July 14, 2006

So little time, so many people
Last night ended up being another of those nights that was not at all what I'd planned or expected. My friends from Cambridge, a former camper who bought one of the nicest camps on our side of the lake, ended up inviting me for dinner (along with Linda and Erd.), so I went home for 15 minutes before heading there. We had a really nice time, plus the food was delicious. Their son was there--he'll be a sophomore at Harvard this year and all 3 of them have taken Asian cooking classes. We had homemade spring rolls and tempura-battered onion rings for appetizers, then a grilled pork roast with a delicious rub, plus grilled peppers, a great salad and beets. yummy. We had about 4 bottles of wine, delicious blueberry-flavored cocktails before dinner, brandy after dinner, then we wove our way to Linda's for a sit-around-the-campfire time. The men in the group assembled in Linda's kitchen to build fancy and impressive drinks but I had water and sat by the fire with Chances and the ladies for a little while, getting home at 11. The moon was an incredible orange-red and rose at a leisurely pace over the water. It was a really nice evening but man am I getting socialized out.

Tonight I'm having cocktails (sense a theme here?) across the lake with the couple who's leading the tax revolt, and Linda. Be there at 6 and Linda swears leave by 7. I have to work until 5, which means I can't go to physical therapy as I'd planned. Won't get home until 5:45 so I'll just go to Linda's rather than stir up the dogs just to coop them up again.

This morning while I slept Tess ate a container of fish food (dried brine shrimp, which I bought as a treat for the little darlings, but which were so big they scared the hell out of them--they all swam away from the food really fast when I dropped it in the water, very funny). I had left the bedroom door open (for the breeze) with a baby gate and chair blocking the doorway. This just proves that Tess is, in fact, not mature enough to be trusted in the house unchaperoned. As if that were a surprise.

I forgot that I didn't have to be at work until 9 so got here at 8 this morning. I sure could have used that extra hour of sleep but I don't really mind. I played around with my pictures, ordered some online, then went out for coffee, taking orders for everyone who wanted some. I like doing things for other people so that was nice. Then I spent the day cataloging children's books (manohman do I hate children's books). Scholastic and some other reprint publisher editions. At least I could basically copy the records already in our data base, but of course that just makes it more monotonous. Now I will tackle some more RL Stevenson records. Sigh.

It's really hot here, 90, and due to be that way tomorrow and Sunday. I'm sure hoping for dock time. I just keep saying it like a mantra. Dock time. Dock time. Fred is having a garage sale at his Plattsburgh home and we had all planned to go early because he'll have some wonderful stuff. I think I'll pass, though--his prices will be really high and I have NOOOOO money right now (checkbook balance= -$20 and today is payday). Do I really need more stuff, anyway? Besides, I have to be ready for the big party tomorrow afternoon. Must wash my dress tonight and hang it out to dry tomorrow, first trying it on to make sure it still fits. I am no longer the size I was last time I wore it but hopefully it's one of those vaguely enough shaped dresses so I'll get away with it. It's a pretty color green so I'd like to wear it. Otherwise I'll have to wear my standby navy blue flowered dress, which I've worn a zillion times.

Onward and upward.

skijumps


skijumps
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
I went to Lake Placid yesterday afternoon to see my Very Cute Doctor. This is the view from the golf course there--these are the Olympic ski jumps. They're really high and you can take an elevator to the top of the 90 meter (the tallest one). It's glassed in on top and you get a spectacular 180-degree view, plus you can look down the jump to see what it's like to be a ski jumper. Insanity, that's what it's like. You can think of the ski jumps two ways: a blight on an otherwise beautiful vista, or something really historic and cool. I feel different ways different days. Yesterday I wished they weren't there. And my doctor? He told me not to do the frog kick anymore when I swim.

golfcourse


golfcourse
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
The view from the other side of the golf course. Not the High Peaks but very pretty nevertheless. This is looking northeast, I think.

purple


purple
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
My flowers aren't too exciting this year, but the purples are pretty in this one. I put these crystals in some of the pots--they go in the dirt as crystals and hold the water so they swell up and get all icky when they get wet. Jenica discovered a bunch of them and said, "There's jello in that pot!" The stuff is all slimy and feels like a slug when you step on it in bare feet. I guess it works--it's supposed to keep the soil moist for a longer period of time between waterings. Some of my pots have it and some don't. A grand experiment.

tomatoes


tomatoes
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
Although it may not seem like much, it's pretty exciting to me to have green tomatoes so early. They're grape tomatoes, just the little ones. I'll be eating them soon if this heat keeps up. They're in a pot on the railing so the dogs can't get them. Last year Tess discovered tomatoes on the vine, something my Labs have always considered a great delicacy. They come inside smelling like tomato plants and I know I won't have many ripe tomatoes for myself.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Normalcy
I long for. I love my summer friends, they are some of the people most dear to me, but my life gets turned upside down while they're here. I live partly in the boat house, partly at home and partly out of my car. This week I had in my car 2 packs with clean clothes, 2 laundry baskets with dirty clothes and dirty bedding, a basket with notes from the shoreowners' association and my reading materials, plus 2 bottles of Diet Mtn. Dew to keep me grounded (or slightly above the ground). So one night I went to the laundromat, then to physical therapy (self-guided, since my insurance has cut me off for now), then home and cleaned out my car. I even put everything away once I got home. And heaved a huge sigh of relief. I went to Linda's, had a drink and told them all (there are 4 people there now, plus Fred was visiting) I was hysterical and obsessing over my water issue. I went to my neighbor's camp (he's a contractor) to talk to his wife about the possibility of having him help me with my water issue. I stopped at Ken's to tell him I couldn't order wood because I didn't have enough money for that and a plumbing issue.

But god bless Ken. He said "Let's call Marty Coolidge, he might know who to call." Marty used to be a handyman jack-of-all trades for someone, before he up & quit. He's in his 70's, maybe, and is one of Ken's dearest friends. I described the problem to him and he said there was little chance it was the foot valve in my well (as someone's boyfriend had suggested it might be, which would mean someone would have to bring an extension ladder to my house and go down into my well with a sump pump, drain the well and replace the foot valve). Probably something in the pressure switch, he figured, and why didn't I try calling John Ryan, he might fix it for me. John Ryan is an informal-type plumber who knows a lot about Myers pumps, which is the kind I have. I called John Ryan, who lives a mile from where we used to live (which was across the road from his daughter and granddaughter). He must be in his 60's but boy does he know a lot about plumbing and pumps. Yes, he could come but only on Weds., the day I was due to be in AuSable Forks barcoding their collection. Not cool to leave there mid-day, but what else could I do? No, it didn't sound like the foot valve to him either, more like a problem with the pressure switch. No, it wouldn't hurt the pump to run it with water spewing out the side.

So I met him at my house yesterday afternoon. I'm always embarrassed to show people my plumbing situation, the hole in the floor where my pump, etc. are kept. "Oh, this is big compared to where I just was." You get to it all via a trapdoor in the floor, climbing down a ladder. So he figured it out, and boy was I embarrassed. There's a tiny hose that runs from the pressure switch to the side of the pump and the hose had become disconnected. How did I miss that? Someone had actually described this possibility to me but I overlooked it in my hysteria when I was down there (of course, I was only down there when the water was spurting out of the pump, I never checked it out after the water stopped flowing). So kind, sweet John fixed it, then diagnosed another problem: the bladder inside my tank is shot. Ken and I have suspected this for a long time so it was no surprise. I asked if he would be interested in installing a new tank for me & he said sure, he'd order one & call me when it came in. HURRAY! He left, all is (supposedly) fine. I don't trust any of it, but the pump is behaving admirably so far. I'm just waiting for that hose to blow itself off again. Well crisis averted. Huge sigh of relief. And again: When am I going to drill a real well? When I have $10,000 to spare, that's when.

I've spent a lot of time with Erdvilas & Linda and their guests this week, having a very nice time but feeling very disorganized. Last night we went to the best Mexican restaurant in the area. It's impossible to get a table there but we got there early so it worked out. Fred met us there. Food was good, everyone in a good mood. Nice time. I had key lime ice cream for dessert with raspberry syrup drizzled over the top. That was very tasty. Back to Linda's afterward where we did the NY Times crossword, a communal project. Then home at last.

Tonight I have no plans. What to do with myself? RELAX! Vacuum. Tomorrow I have to go for cocktails with someone across the lake who is working with the attorney on the class action suit about the tax thing. Blech.

Friends of mine are selling their camp, which used to be part of the girls' camp at the head of the lake. They have 3 buildings, which sleep 19. Asking price: $690,000. We're all stunned. I can't imagine they'll get that much for it, and I can't believe they're selling it.

This afternoon I go to Placid to see my orthopedic dreamboat doctor. To find out what? I guess to see if physical therapy was worth doing. It all seems sort of silly to me but then, my knee only hurts sometimes and then only a little. Hopefully I'll get home early enough to mow my lawn (again, you all say, with mowing the lawn!).

My dog Tess has no respect for screen doors. Here's a neat trick she learned at camp: If you just barge through a screen door, chances are you can punch the screen out and use it like a pet door. I stapled the screen back together and yesterday watched her barrel right through it again. So there's a project: cut a board to fit across the bottom of my screen door so she'll bash her head the next time I fix the screen & she tries to go through it. The mosquitoes in the living room last night convinced me this was a good project to take on soon.

Hot, very hot here. Supposed to be hot for the next few days. That would be great, but camp will be crawling with The Ickies. Mega-cousins coming this weekend for cousins' 50th wedding anniversary party (since they're my former in-laws, I must go not only to anniv. party but to family dinner which follows). I'm hoping for dead-calm morning to sit on dock with Jenica and/or paddle my kayak.

And now I have to catalog some DVD's that are so bad that no other library in the country owns them.

Monday, July 10, 2006

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!

moonlight


moonlight
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
There was a big orange moon last night and it made nice light across the water. We sat on the boat house porch, sipping brandy and watching it. Very, very tranquil and nice. Even the dogs settled down for the event.

Mark & Tina


mark&tina
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is my mother's dog Tina. She's a grumpy thing and got tired of my dogs, nipping Tess hard enough to make her kaiyai really loud and long. No blood, and Tess wouldn't give up trying to please Tina after that, like the neighborhood bully who's really popular. Tina always wants Mark to pay attention to her, which drives my mother crazy.

kayaker


kayaker
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
That's me, all right. Proof that I used my kayak. I went for a long paddle with my friend Mary Kay (on the right). My boat looks pretty small, doesn't it. That's mark on the dock. Mary Kay and I paddled to the head of the lake, which is probably a mile and a half, then we paddled along the opposite shore, which is wild forest. I cut across the lake sooner than she did because it was getting really rough and I'm a scardy cat about waves. I had a really nice time and we paddled for 2 hours. I like the kayak, it's very easy to use and very stable.

Happy me


happyme
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
That's me with Chances, sitting in my favorite spot. We all spent a lot of time on the boat house porch over the weekend. It was a good weekend for it but it was pretty windy. The water is now cold but very nice for swimming on a sunny day. The thermometer Molly brought from Itally says it's 70 degrees but it sure doesn't feel that warm. It's at the point where you get used to it pretty quickly, though, and it feels really nice. Mark and I went skinny-dipping Sunday night and it was pretty cold, swimming at night. Very pretty, but cold.

beans


beans
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is my mother snapping green beans for dinner. Ever since I can remember someone has done that at camp. We used to sit on the dock and she'd do it when I was a kid. She would use the end of the vegetable peeler to cut them into French-style slices, or just snap the ends off. It was sort of a social event, my aunt & cousins sitting there in the sun with her.

Team Hawkeye


teamhawkeye
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is kind of a motley crew but it's some of the people I did roadside cleanup with on Saturday morning. We are responsible for cleaning about 5 or 6 miles of roadside (our shoreowners' organization). We had 20 people show up to do it Sat. morning at 10, which was really good for such a warm, sunny dock day. Afterward there was a picnic at Linda's. That's Linda on the far right and Fred on the far left.

Thursday, July 06, 2006


Quality friends
Sometimes I'm just so impressed with the friends I have, it makes me feel wonderful. Last night I had dinner with Annie's (of Rush & Annie) brother, his wife, their son and two of their friends. Neil's wife works for HUD and has for a long time, as did one of the friends. The husband friend lives in Fresno, CA and the wife works out of Washington D.C. Neil & Sharman's son John is a hedge fund manager on Wall Street. Such high fallutin' friends I have! Anyway I sort of didn't want to go but I had the best time. They are really wonderful and special people. We laughed a lot and talked politics a lot (I love being surrounded with liberals) and made jokes at dead Ken Lay's expense. Randy, the husband from Fresno grilled me on what it's like to live here year-round. That got a little tiresome but I'm often a freak show to people so I'm used to it. We talked about logging and the differences between California practices & Adirondack practices (he teaches vo-tech type stuff so was really interested in how loggers hire out here). That was interesting.

They made homemade ice cream that was maybe the best ice cream I've ever tasted--caramel ice cream (which I noticed I pronounce car-mell and they all pronounce care-a-mell). It should taste good, it had 4 pints of heavy cream, between the ice cream and the caramel mixtures in it. Man it was good. Anyway I stayed way later than I'd planned but really enjoyed myself.

Then I was good and went to bed at a civilized hour so I woke with my alarm this morning, showered, packed up the garbage and made it to the dump early enough to get to work early as well. A proud accomplishment these days. I feel better today, more cheerful and less troubled. I don't like these rapid transformations but I'm increasing the dose of the new med gradually so maybe good things will be in my future. I'm taking tomorrow off (last minute decision) partly because I need to clean the boat house for my mother's visit and partly because it's supposed to be a beautiful day. This naturally cheers me up. The weekend is supposed to be really nice, 80 and sunny. I'll be busy, too busy for dock time.

Last night I searched for a blank journal to use to record my dreams. I found a journal I kept during the time Jamie left. Man was that a dreary time. It was interesting to read about the things he said. Back & forth he went about why he left & what he wanted. Jerk. All he really wanted was to sleep with his secretary, if he'd only admitted that in the beginning he could have spared everyone a lot of grief. Anyway the journal is a good record of how wonderful my sister and friends were to me during the whole thing. And it's the beginning of my relationship with Dr. Rubin. 1996--wow, we've been working together for a long time.

So today I start working on the Robert Louis Stevenson collection from Saranac Lake. It's old stuff, will require a lot of concentration and typing but is a challenge. Time for me to be challenged I think. Stevenson spent time in Sar. Lake and had a cottage there, I think to cure his tuberculosis. This is a rare book collection dealing with him as well as works by him. Rare eds, etc. I'll be working from shelf-list cards. oh boy.

Little Tess


Little Tess
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
Tess finally let me take her picture. She posed for a number of shots last night, which really surprised me. Here she looks a litle pissed off, maybe she was tired of posing for the swimsuit issue. She needed to have her kotted rope as a prop. She has a pretty face, doesn't she.

Butt 1


Butt 1
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is Chances' butt. I like this picture. She's getting a drink of water off the end of the dock. She looks sort of like a brown lion or something wild. But really she's just my sweet Chances Are.

butt 2


butt 2
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
Apparently Chances spends a lot of time with her back to me. Here she's waiting for Tess to come in (last night). She certainly does seem to have a wide, square butt, doesn't she.

Chicory


Chicory
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
Chicory is in bloom all along the roadways now. It's a really pretty color and is incredibly prolific.

Saranac River


Saranac River
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.
This is another view of the Saranac River. It looks sort of like the view I see on my way home, but it was taken on my way to work from the dump. I stopped there on my way to work this morning (the dump, that is). A new dump man was working and he wanted to know too many details of my life.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Your Soul Urge number is: 2
A Soul Urge number of 2 means: With the Soul Urge number 2, your motivation is centered on friendships, partnerships, and companionship. You want to work with others as a part of a cooperative team. Leadership is not important to you, but making a contribution to the team effort is. You are willing to work hard to achieve a harmonious environment with sensitive, genial people.
In a positive sense, the 2 Soul Urge is sympathetic, extremely concerned and devoted. The nature tends to be very sensitive to others, always tactful and diplomatic. (NOT) This element in your nature indicates that you are rather emotional. You are persuasive, but in a very quiet way, never forceful. (NOT) You are the type that makes really close friendships because you are so affectionate and loving.
If this number is over-emphasized in your makeup, you may be over-sensitive, with a delicate ego that is too easily hurt. You may be timid or fearful, too easygoing for your own good.

Your Inner Dream number is: 5
An Inner Dream number of 5 means: You dream of being totally free and unrestrained by responsibility. You see yourself conversing and mingling with the natives in many nations,(HUH?) living for adventure and life experiences. You imagine what you might accomplish.
It doesn't get much stranger
I never realize how strange my friends and their rituals are until I describe them to someone else. This morning I was telling my colleague and friend Julie about yesterday's activities with my friends and we were both laughing hysterically. I spent the afternoon and evening with Linda, Erdvilas and assorted others. The central event of early evening was the production (and I do mean production) of a layered drink. Erdvilas likes to make layered drinks, layered according to sugar and alcohol content: you make one liquor/liqueur float on top of the other in the glass, to a dramatic effect. Ken's niece Pat, sister to Joe, had found a recipe with accompanying color photo of a 7-layered drink called the Star Bangled Spanner and she wanted E. to duplicate the drink. We all trooped to Joe's, where he had assembled the requisite liquors and substitutes (at considerable cost). Green chartreuse, yellow chartreuse, cherry brandy, 151 rum, a special Violette liquor from France, etc., etc. We all sat in a circle around the table, where E. sat. He held court, first holding the ceremony of discovering which liquid would float on top of which, practicing in a number of shot glasses (which had been lined up in a row). He had someone take extensive notes ("green chrartreuse floats on top of fortified cherry brandy"). Finally the true production began. The drink was assembled in a champagne flute. My job was to let him know immediately whether the new layer was floating on the established layer or mixing with it. This was crucial to the success of the whole thing. SUCCESS! Seven layers were achieved. Photos--many, many photos were taken. E. was not pleased with the background so carried the flute outside for a more dramatic background. No, first background didn't show off the layers well enough so he carried it around Joe's yard until he found a good spot (with the barn as background). By now the group (understandably) had lost interest in recording the drink and was interested in consuming it. We finally got to, which was pretty anticlimactic.

From there we went to Linda's for dinner. E. stayed at Joe's and had too much to drink, joining us for dinner a bit later. He got into a huge fight with 2 people about whether or not cats are natural killers. Oh yeah, a topic worthy of yelling about. I finally convinced everyone at the table to stop arguing with him and let him win. Silence except for his attempts to convince us. OK, I said, you win. He muttered "You just say that to get me to stop." Well, yes that's certainly true. Then he sulked for a while before telling Holly, visiting from Michigan and a very nice, patient and sweet woman, that she is a true and good friend (which I, apparently at that point was not). Ah, alcohol. What entertaining times it provides. Later, after everyone else had retired he told Chances and me what a wonderful and perfect dog she was. Over and over. Well who can argue with that?

Anyway, the part about the drink and the part about the cat killers were really funny, in hindsight. Picture a circle of chairs watching a man pour alcohol into a fluted glass for a very long time, oohing and ahhing with each of 7 layers. But we take our entertainment and companionship very seriously in Hawkeye.

Other than that I'm afraid I completely wasted my day. For some reason (depression?) I couldn't bring myself to do anything yesterday. Early morning would have been a good time to mow the lawn, though it was really too warm. Then it rained--not too hard, and it would have been a good time to weed. Heck, I could even have stacked firewood. Instead I lay on the couch and dozed off & on all day. Didn't even go to the boat house to enjoy a lake day. I don't know what came over me, some sort of malaise. It was very discouraging. Do I feel better today? I don't think so, really. I didn't set my alarm this morning. Went to bed at 1, slept until 8, late to work (9:30). Got my physical therapy appointment mixed up so I missed it on Monday, thinking it was today. Now I have enough time after work to do my laundry but I didn't bring it with me. Or I could go grocery shopping but I don't have my list and I don't have a clue what I need. I guess I could buy a new shower head for camp. Every taken a shower without a shower head? It's actually preferrable, but I don't think my cousins would agree. Nary a dribble came out when I turned the shower on the other day, so I took a nice shower with just a single stream. Infinitely preferrable. Tonight I have dinner with Annie's brother.

So that's where I am today. Not a great place. But I can find comfort in cataloging. My mother comes this weekend, with Mark. I have to do roadside cleanup (also known as "beautification") with the shoreowners, followed by cookout at Linda's (also known as "afterglow"). That's Sat. On Sunday, though I can skip Sunday dinner, there's a meeting of the shoreowners' association in the afternoon. This limits the amout of time I can spend visiting with Liza. Hope she understands. It also makes me feel totally frazzled and with no control over the hours in my days. Next weekend is no better: it's the 50th anniversary weekend. Camp will be crawling with cousins. I'll worry about that later and think about how nice next week can be, visiting with Linda, Holly, Chris, Erdvilas and Mary Kay at Linda's camp. And Fred at his camp. And I think Jim and Judy will be at their camp.

Now, about those sucky videos that Chazy owns...

Monday, July 03, 2006

One of the few people at work today and hoping my remaining clerk will go home early so I will have the dept. to myself. I'm the 9-5 person so I will be alone from 4-5. I like days like today, the possibilities seem endless. It's a beautiful day outside, however, the day we should have had on Saturday. Instead we had a monumental rainstorm, a slight bit of hail that hit the lake with big kerplunks. Ken said it was sleet but I think he exaggerates. We didn't see actual hail on the ground but I saw big plops! in the water. It was a slick storm that Jenica and I watched from the b.house porch. I had gotten up at 5:30 and spent most of the morning on the porch there reading but was dozing when she arrived. I didn't sleep down there Friday night, it was too cold: 48 at my house Sat. morning.

We had a really nice visit, Jenica and I. We can talk about library stuff endlessly and never get bored. It was great to hear about her articles. I admire her scholarly endeavors and energy. We went to Sunday dinner and Bill's enthusiasm for and adoration of her were so obvious. He told me after her last visit that he thinks she's a special and wonderful person so it was fun to watch him in action with her. He really enjoys being with her and was so happy to have her there. Fred was also there, his 2nd day of retirement. I'm excited that he's retired and will be in residence in Hawkeye until late fall.

I had an early morning appointment with my psychiatrist this morning. Although I'm doing very well, we discovered a big problem I have and will be doing some work on it. Rats! I guess I feel strong enough now to deal with it. Last night I had 2 dreams: the first was an anxiety dream, that an inmate had tracked me down through my email address and called me. I felt really vulnerable and threatened. He found me while I was sleeping and woke me up. Although traditionally in that situation in my dreams I am unable to make noise, this time I yelled "NOOOOO!" and woke myself up. The dogs did not care. I finally got back to sleep, after debating whether or not I should lock my door, the woods no doubt teeming with inmates who were out to get me (I didn't lock it--I refuse to give in to that fear; once I do I will be unable to live there alone). The dream immediately following that one was that Jamie and I were back together, living in a strange little apartment in an unfamiliar place, then were at his parents' house and his parents were completely nice to me. An odd dream, but unfortunately I've dreamed about a reconciliation about 4 times before in recent weeks.

So I mentioned these dreams to Dr. Rubin and asked if he thought dreams were significant. Well yes he does, in some ways. I said my sister had told me that one's house can represent one's self in a dream and he said it's traditionally accepted that your house represents your body in your dream. I said I wouldn't be able to trust Jamie if he were ever to re-enter my life (aside from the fact that I now find him to be quite boring) so he conjectured that the two dreams were related in that they both dealt with trust issues. hmmm. I see him again in a month. Can't wait to see what dreams I'll have to discuss with him then! Oh boy! Cheap entertainment!

I have an invitation for dinner tonight that I don't want to accept. I have to call them today and give them a made-up excuse. My friend Peter stopped by yesterday to invite me to his camp on Union Falls for a day-long fete tomorrow, music and people. I've been to something like that at his place before. I doubt that I'll go but you never know. It's hard to go to those things alone, although I'm sure I'll know people there. I know he'd really like it if I went. I'd really rather spend time with Linda.

What I'd like to do tomorrow is dig in my garden. I checked out the one I haven't dug in yet and it's a real mess. It cries out for attention so I hope to spend time with it, but we may have rain. I also need to bring my lawn mower home from camp. That involves mowing all the way home, cutting the other side of the strip down the middle of the road. Have to cut my grass again. And I should put away the upside-down and injured gazebo in my yard and attempt to put up the dome-shaped one I bought. Coulda shoulda woulda.