Home again, home again jiggedy jig

I know Jenica and Molly have referred to our recent famliness, but none of us has had the time to go into detail. We had a great time together. I had more than 2 weeks off to spend with Molly, Liza and Anna, and we got to see Jenica for several days during that time. We spent time in RI and at Silver Lake. The weather was good, although it was really uncomfortably hot part of the time in RI. The solution to that is: go to the beach and swim in the ocean.


We spent lots of time at the beach and I swam in the ocean a lot. I like to swim in salt water, but I'm used to swimming in clear, clear water. It's important that I see my feet when I swim. Anna teased me when I talked to her on the phone after I got home and said they'd been to the beach and it was dead calm (just the way I like it) and crystal clear (just the way I like it) and you could see your feet. That girl is pretty funny.

Mark went to the beach with us and so did Liza a couple of times. It was great to have her there. We ate lobster, fish, bivalves and lots of pasta dishes. My poor sister--each year we ask her to cook pasta dishes night after night for dinner. It's such a treat to have wonderful, simple dishes like that, and she's a good Italian cook.

We cohabited in great harmony. I always marvel that we can fit so many people with such varied sleeping habits in the boat house, but it seems to work every year. I don't think it's easy for Jenica and Anna, who would like to sleep later, but they're nice about having us up early, moving around and making coffee. The lake was beautiful, Molly saw and recorded the sunrise each day, we swam a lot, docked a lot, and tolerated the 40 relatives who showed up for our annual meeting.

And now it's back to Hawkeye in August, which is a busy time. Linda and Erdvilas are here for 3 weeks, the Holts were here for a long weekend, my friends the Neels have been here for a month and various others are around. Last night I had dinner with the Holts, the first dinner party in their new house. Had a nice time and they were really proud and pleased. Tonight is Linda's annual Campfire, at which the daughters of a former camper (who was a movie "star" for a while and in her prime dated Christopher Reeve, even bringing him to Silver Lake) put on a show of some sort. Usually a portion of a musical. Last year it was a couple of scenes from Oliver. Not sure they've had time to prepare this year but I suspect they have. Anyway Campfire Night usually attracts a big crowd.

This weekend is Road Clean-Up and the Conservationists' picnic and meeting. yuck. I'm pretty tired of this group but I do think it's important to support a shoreowners' association. I've been secretary for probably 10 years and have edited the newsletter for at least that long. Linda is current president but can't serve another term and is having a really hard time figuring out who will serve next. NO ONE wants to do this.

Sunday I'm off to Utica (armpit of NY) for a conference--public library systems of the state. Always a good conference, used to be an annual thing but has sort of fallen by the wayside in recent years, so it's important to go. Will be back Tues. night, will board dogs for 3 nights, maybe 4. $100 or so. Who's got money for that? Someone else, not me.

Tess is suffering from her annual ragweed allergy attack. Uncontrollable scratching, poor thing. I took them both in for their 2nd anti-Lyme disease boosters last week & picked up prednisone for her but it's taking quite a while to kick in. Starting to see some relief at last. She had quite a social time over the weekend; I had reports from 3 camps that she'd been down to visit them and she was returned to the house by the girls who do the musicals, after going for a run with them (and their golden retriever named Athena).

Friday night was Big City Bingo, this year with a crowd of 40 (about normal). Nice time but it was really cold. The weather has been perfect late Sept. weather--yesterday it was 40 in the morning, didn't check today. Saranac Lake recorded 39 yesterday and was supposedly the coldest spot in the country. Dubious distinction.

And now it's time to wrangle with the Circulation Policy I was supposed to have it ready for the August board meeting (which was last night). I used vacation as an excuse, but now I have none and must proceed. It's hard to start these things from a blank page. Especially when you lack the motivation.

I just picked up some prints I had made--Molly and Liza went through a bunch of slides and family pictures while we were in RI. Some wonderful pictures of my brother as a child. He was really cute (so were Molly and I, but for he was really angelic). Also got some pictures of ancestors from a cousin, always fun to look at.

Can delay the inevitable no longer.