OK, so it's been a while since I've posted. I write long letters to my mother each week, which seems to scratch my need for reporting itch. I'll try to bring things up to date. Mostly I've been visiting with summer friends and working.
Biggest news from me is that I got my braces off. Very exciting. My teeth look great, just the slightest hint of a space between my front teeth. I wear a plastic retainer until I have a permanent one put in in August. I live in mortal fear that my teeth will float apart, but if that happens it happens. I have good teeth and am lucky for that. The whole braces thing was a big experiment anyway. An expensive one, but an experiment. My thinking was that, when I turn 60 next year I'll be thin, have straight teeth and long hair. So far I've lost weight, my hair is about shoulder-length, and my teeth are pretty good looking.
My Midwestern friends are planning a gathering next year (for our 60ths). So far 17 people are planning to be there (I'm one). It's to be at a lake in southern Wisconsin. Midwestern lakes are so way different from Adirondack/Northeastern lakes. They tend not to be spring fed, which makes them warmer and with more vegetation. They're also pretty shallow, generally, and not terribly clear. All of this sounds not attractive, but some lakes are nice. The Great Lakes are fantastic. We used to swim in funky little lakes when we lived in southern Illinois. There was no good lake for swimming in Rockford, but I think they now allow swimming in the lake where we used to hang out. Never was sure why you couldn't swim there...
I had a good 4th of July. Linda is here for the summer, and she had her annual 4th of July cookout. Delicious steaks cooked on the campfire. Her friends from Mich. were there too, a couple I really like visiting with. I got to spend time on the dock with my dogs, one of my all-time favorite things. My Icky Cousin was in camp and bellowed at my dogs so I stayed away from there until they left last week. Except for the day they went golfing & shopping, when I could relax with dogs & enjoy being there. I've slept in the boat house a few times but this year I seem to be more comfortable at home. Go figure. Tonight I think I'll stay down there, it's supposed to be pretty warm. I had bad dreams last night at home, woke twice and finally got up at 5:00.
I've been swimming a couple of times--the lake is very warm this year, thought it was a bit colder yesterday, who knows why. I had a fantastic dock day yesterday--went to camp around 10:30 and stayed until I could stay no more, around 2:30 or so. Went home to make dessert for book group, which Linda hosted last night. We had a good crowd, though no one really like the book (The big house). Good food, very nice people. This month we're reading The lace reader, which I know nothing about, nor do I know how I happened to have a copy to offer as a choice.
I saw the loons the other day. Two adults and two tiny ducklets. Ducklets swam a little, then rode on ma's back for a while. Very cute. Mostly boats and jet skis left them alone, let's hope that trend continues.
I've seen lots of summer friends--the Holts were here for a week so I had dinner with them twice. Their Slovenian grandsons were here and were lots of fun to visit with. 9 and 12, excellent English. We also had our Hawkeye Conserva. road clean-up and picnic (again, hosted by Linda). I got to partner with Fred & Bill for the clean up, which was fun. F. won't go in the tall grass because there might be snakes, and Bill is color blind so misses a lot of the garbage. We managed to collect plenty, which made Fred feel it was worth the time.
Tomorrow I spend the day in Keene, barcoding and adding records to the data base. It's a small, quiet library with a shy director. Am I looking forward to this? Well, sort of. It's nice to be out of the library from time to time. Weds. I spend in Tupper Lake cataloging their local history collection. Another nice group of people. Tupper Lake is way far away from everything. Takes an hour to get to from home.
I survived Kim's week-long vacation before the 4th. Man did I hustle. Her work has to be done every day, and right away every day, so I had plenty to do. Other than cataloging I've been ordering books like a mad food for a grant we got. $30,000 for member libraries to purchase books with, all orders placed by me and processed by Kim. There are huge piles of boxes waiting to be unpacked & have the books distributed. whew. So far about 15 (half) of the libraries have sent in their orders so we're making progress.
It's hot and sunny this week. Very nice. I try to stack some firewood every day, and will do so even in the unpleasantness of hot humid weather. I have a friend's son mow my lawn every week and last week he stacked some wood while he was there. Unfortunately the stack he built tipped over--chaos ensued. It took me a while to straighten it out & restack the wood. Too frustrating, handling the wood one more time and not being ahead of the game when I was finished. It doesn't take much to convince me that stacking firewood can be postponed. Though it can't--this wood won't really be dry enough to burn this winter, but it's the best I can do. 8 cords, about 1.5 cords stacked so far. It does dry when piled the way it is now, but not as well as when it's neatly stacked with lots of air circulating through it. Blech.
Dogs are fine, cat is fine. Dogs are shedding a lot and look very motly. I comb them every day, taking a quart of fur from each of them. There's always more, though, and plenty of it ends up on the floor. Yesterday kitty delivered a bird--a finch, I think--way more alive than dead. I picked up birdie & it flew away as soon as I took it outside. Whew! A close call. I found a baby shrew on the bedroom floor recently. Kitty doesn't like regular old rodents, she prefers something a little more interesting.
I'm heading to RI in August, which I'm really looking forward to. My sister arrives in America in 2 weeks, stays for a month. I don't know if they'll come here this year--it's impossible to know ahead of time what my mother will want to do. If they're here, I'm here. They wouldn't be here for more than a few days anyway.
Back to work. Must come up with call numbers for DVDs about teen suicide, pelicans, yoga, etc. Aw heck, who cares what their call numbers are, just make something up.
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