Back to life in Hawkeye and all settled in. Last week was a rough one at work--I had such a truly wonderful vacation that it was hard to be back. Ah, life is rough when you complain about what a great vacation you had. We all really enjoyed being together. We went to the beach nearly every day. The ocean was cold but refreshing. The water was mostly clear but there were a couple of days plagued by jellyfish hatches. I don't know if it was eggs or jellyfish but there were billions of them in the water. This happened another time but then it was much, much worse. They're hard little things under water--Jenica said it was like swimming with ice cubes, which would be fine if you could forget that they're LIVE ORGANISMS. We swam (briefly) in them and that was only twice. The rest of the time we had good beach conditions.
We spent the first week with Jenica, Justin, Gwyn and Malcolm the GIANT DOG, all fitting comfortably in Liza's house. She was nervous about everyone's comfort but it worked out well. We had lunch at our favorite lunch place (Champlin's) and breakfast at Jim's Dock, spent a lot of time visiting and playing with the baby, and read a lot. Very peaceful.
The second week was peaceful, too--much beaching and more reading. We all read our books--I like lying on the futon on the front porch, where it's very comfortable and the dogs join me. I also like sitting on the deck looking out at Liza's very green yard that's full of flowers. It was good to read, I haven't been reading much lately so I wanted to get back in the habit. I slept in the screened-in gazebo in the woods, a favorite place of mine. I've wanted something like that at my house but don't suppose that will happen, and besides I have camp if I want to sleep in a screened-in place.
The dogs were good. They didn't get much exercise, only one walk in the park. They use the small pen attached to my mother's house and don't seem to mind much. Maybe they know how lucky they are to get taken along...
The first weekend in August we had our annual family meeting. It went well, without much discussion of anything. What's new? There's no money. People don't do enough work at camp. blah blah blah. Always the same, always true.
Sunday of that weekend Molly cooked Sunday dinner for my friends. I helped but she did most of it. It was my turn for potluck and I asked her to do it for me. It was delicious, of course. After that we collapsed and packed for the trip to RI, leaving Monday after I went to the dentist to have my permanent retainer repaired AGAIN. Easy trip.
When I got back last Saturday I settled in and unpacked, then visited with neighbors. Everyone did just fine without me (no surprise) but all were happy to see me. Sunday was Pat's potluck of meatloaf, which was delicious and filling. Sunday night Linda hosted book group. There were only 3 of us there but we had an excellent time sitting at her camp fire.
On Thursday night we had a wine tasting, conducted by Erdvilas and hosted by Joe with food by Bill's favorite chef. Very fancy, very nice.
What's up at my house? Not much. Lots and lots of mice. It's tempting to get another cat, but I don't think I'll do that. I don't need another animal, and I sure don't need to worry about what will eat my cat. I just set traps every night. I've killed 8 since my return. The year I got my cat I killed 21 before surrendering to the idea of having a cat. Bet I have that many now, too, there just seems to be an endless parade of them.
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