Friday

A nice man told me a vaguely funny joke while we were both pumping gas this morning.  He was a stranger who thought it was a good thing to have it be Friday.  It's a beautiful morning--who could argue with him.  I won't repeat the joke, it wasn't that funny, but it was a nice exchange on my way to work.

I stayed in the boat house last night, at Linda's urging.  It wasn't as warm as I like to have it but neither was it cold, temp in the 50's.  I walked down with the dogs in an attempt to give all of us a little exercise.  I finished reading Jewelweed, by David Rhodes and I liked the ending very much (it's a happy ending, which my friend Barb always likes).  The lake was quiet EXCEPT for one jet-ski that kept going round and round the lake.  Well, the view doesn't change from one pass to the next, but this person was having a grand time annoying everyone on the lake.  He finally had some engine trouble and went home.  Then the loons started...they were really loud, very close to the boat house right when I was trying to go to sleep.  Not really a bad sound to doze off to.

I had a nice week, good visits with people.  I saw the Kokosing boys on Monday after they arrived (as opposed to what--BEFORE they arrived?) and again on Tuesday when I delivered a UPS package for them.  They took me out to dinner and we had a nice time.  They were tired from a hard day's working on the dock but we were all cheery.

Weds. I went with Linda to talk about the Conservationists, our lake organization, with the woman who's treasurer and has been involved for a long time.  We were wondering what to do about the lack of participation and apparent interest on the part of our members.  She was encouraging and gave us good ideas for a newsletter, a pamphlet, and mostly just gave us a good pep talk.  She's a very nice woman--she & her husband live on the lake year-round and I see them from time to time.

Work was quiet this week, not much going on.  We did have a union meeting the other day, to get negotiations started.  Although I'm serving on the team (all full-time unit members are, since there are only 6 of us) I don't know if I'll be here by the time the new contract is settled.  Our current contract is a good one to retire under, but this week I feel more like sticking around.  People tell me that, if I can't make up my mind about retiring, it isn't the right time.  Well, some days it sure feels like the right time, but this week not so much.  I don't know.  I do enjoy what I do but I am tired of working and especially of driving to Pbg every day.  Is that a good enough reason to leave?

Dogs are fine.  They sure thought something interesting was in the woods this morning and ran off a couple of times on the way home from camp.  I was smart (finally) and didn't feed them before we walked home so they were very interested in sticking close to me.

Tonight I'll stop at P&J's after doing some shopping.  I have to take a salad to a meeting on Monday in Keene Valley so will get supplies for that.  I think I'll make a quinoa salad, which may or may not be a good thing.  It'll be different at least.

No big plans for the weekend but that doesn't mean much.  I'll try to get the final bags of insulation to the dump and hope to do some cleaning at the boat house.  There's pine pollen all over and is garbage that needs attending to.  It's supposed to be a beautiful, warm and sunny weekend so that may slow me down.  The dock calls...