It's been a busy time for the past couple of weeks, too busy for me to sit down to write. And I've been at home a lot, where I have dial access and can't easily post to the blog. So I'm back.
I had 5 days off last week, which was fantastic. I cleaned 4 rooms in my house, generating 13 bags of trash. That's a record for me. I got the mud room in great shape (you can walk into and through it now), cleared the pantry of old food products (I don't have much left to eat--apparently all I had was old food), swept and cleaned the bedroom (sweeping...now there's something I don't do in that room very often: the dog hair was phenomenal), cleared out the library (a lot of the trash came from there, and I even weeded my cookbook collection), and I managed to find homes for most of the stuff I uncovered. Including my graduate school transcript. Did I throw it out? No, instead I put together a folder containing my "Rhode Island years." It felt funny, putting 9 years of my life in a thin folder, but I threw out plenty of stuff from that time in my life. Which was a good time.
I've been in touch with Fred regularly--he's in rehab right now, and doing well. I'll drop by this afternoon for a brief visit. He likes brief visits and short phone calls. He's having some trouble with the leg they operated on but is in good spirits. Too many visitors is his chief complaint.
I went to the dermatologist in Burlington, had a full body check for my own peace of mind. Some keratosis which was removed and a "suspicious" spot cut out for biopsy. I'm not worried, she didn't seem terribly concerned about it. It was a nice trip to Vermont on a pretty day. I stopped at Barnes & Noble and bought 2 nice puzzles for Annie and some magazines for Fred. He says all he can concentrate on right now is magazine articles so I tried to find some that would interest him. There are a LOT of magazines but few that seemed appropriate for Fred (that he didn't already have). I settled on Mother Jones, Northern Woodlands and The Atlantic. A curious set, I thought, but something no one else would think of getting him.
I had a productive weekend. I planted some cosmos seedlings and some nasturtium seedlings. I still have plenty of both left and need to come up with a place to put them. I've moved the cosmos to a new spot where it's easier to dig and plant so will probably expand that bed a bit and dump the dozens more plants that I have. I put the nasties in the same place as always, planted about 20 plants and still have that many left. I'd plant them at Fred's but he was emphatic about having NO ONE mess with his gardens.
We had book group yesterday at Linda's. Very nice time but one of us is moving to Montana to become the CEO of the state's Planned Parenthood. We'll miss her very much but it's an exciting move and we're very proud of her accomplishments. Linda fed us delicious Michigans and we were able to sit on the porch and listen to the lapping of waves. That was really pleasant.
It's been ungodly hot in Hawkeye but has now cooled off. I spent some time on the boat house porch--I opened the boat house last weekend and it's ready for occupancy now but needs some cleaning in the back room. Residual detritus from the autumnal attack of some varmint. I was able to spend some time reading on the deck at home which is one of my favorite things. How appropriate that I combined this with a visit to the dermatologist! "Do you use sunscreen?" Well, no, oh wait, I do when I go to the beach. That doesn't really count. I read 2 books and finished The art of fielding, which I really enjoyed. I read Tracy Chevalier's latest book and Gail Godwin's latest as well. Gail Godwin is one of those women writers whose books carried important messages and stories about women, written decades ago. Like Marge Piercy, Nancy Thayer, and others. I used to read voraciously and focused on women's fiction (which I guess I still do), which I think resulted in a feeling of empowerment and strength on my part.
I've had dinner with Linda & Erdvilas a few times--L is trying hard to cook Weight Watchers-friendly meals, though we've both gained a little weight in the past 2 weeks. I've only gained a pound but that's discouraging. I never seem to make the connection of late night snacking and weight gain while I'm eating during the evening...
I hope to stop at J & M's tonight because I haven't seen them in a long time. I didn't visit much with anyone except Linda while I was being so productive last week. I had dinner with a retired librarian friend on Friday night in Lake Placid. She isn't adjusting terribly well to retirement and needs more structure in her life. I had mixed feelings about retirement, looking forward to returning to work but enjoying immensely my time at home. It's such a final action, retirement, that I need to be sure for sure that it's what I want to do. Which is what I think most days.
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