Pretty as a picture on 10/28/2014

I had a day off yesterday and it was grand, just grand.  I finished all the closing camp chores then wen to the dump and took a long way home.  A LOOOOONG way home.  I drove slowly so the dogs could stick their heads out the windows and enjoy the trip as much as I did.  They were exhausted when we got home.
This is what the lake looks like these days--no color but pretty anyway.

Sisters.  They like being together.  They share the chair a lot of the time, even when they don't need to stay warm because it's winter.  We had a good weekend but I wasn't terribly productive.  Spent too much time on the couch, reading and watching TV.  What did I watch?  I can't really remember except I watched PBS cooking shows on Saturday.  And the movie Rush on Sunday, which is about grand prix auto racing.  I had a friend in college who was a huge fan of racing so I got interested in it.  Once we went to Lime Rock in Conn. to watch Paul Newman race.  That was fun.

And they like being with me.  This couch isn't as wide as my old couch was but we manage to fit like peas in a pod.  They take turns being "in front."  Sometimes they just lie on top of each other.  They're good girls, that's for sure.

Friday post

It's payday Friday so everyone is in a pretty good mood.  I'd be in a better mood if I didn't have to make mortgage, car and insurance payments all at once, but that's life as an adult, isn't it.

It's rainy and cool but not yet cold here, so is just fine.  I haven't been having fires--mostly because the stove is misbehaving and needs a cleaner stovepipe (I have an appointment next month for that).  House is cool but not bad and the dogs tend to lie on top of me in the evening on the couch so that sure keeps me warm.

I just had a long meeting with my colleagues about what will happen to the work I do here, who will do what and what won't be done.  It's still amazing to me that I'm leaving.  I'm excited and really looking forward to retirement but it's unbelievable that I will no longer be an employee of CEFLS after Dec. 19.  Mostly I feel that can't come soon enough but then I have my moments of "What will I be if I'm not a librarian?"  Pretty much in the mornings, getting ready for work I know that I'm totally ready to stay home.  How do I feel when I get to work?  Mostly I look forward to have a desk that's cleared off and having found someone else to do my job.

Tonight I'm going to hear a live band, which I probably haven't done since going to concerts many years ago.  More than 10 years, I think, I think the last one I went to was a Jackson Browne concert in Burlington with my friends when they were newly pregnant with their now-11 year old son.  Yikes.  What have I been doing for entertainment?  Anyway, in this band is the son of friends, who is coming from Brooklyn to play at a venue here.  A small venue in Upper Jay.  We'll go out for dinner first, and it occurs to me that the friends will want to stay until the bitter end of the performance, way past my bedtime no doubt.  Well, I said I'd go and I am looking forward to being with the friends.  I'm sure the band is good so that will be nice.  I have no idea what kind of music they play.

It's been a quiet week for me.  I had a consultant visit on Tuesday, to the AuSable Forks library and that went well.  There's a new director, a retired school librarian I've known for more than 20 years so that made it nice.  I like going into that library because it's full of Rogers Company things.  We talked about what library I'll "join" when I retire.  It probably won't be that one...for a number of reasons.  I've already had offers to volunteer at 3 libraries and that makes me feel well-liked and appreciated.  Will I do that?  maybe, maybe.

Dogs are fine.  I didn't walk them as much this week as I wanted to because I got home late a few times.  We walk to the mailbox and they run, run, run, especially Treasure.  Tess has that old dog run but Treasure has a fluid, maxed-out running style.  She's beautiful.

No big plans for the weekend.  I need to buy a new rug for the kitchen so may come back to town tomorrow.  or not.  Do I get bored on weekends?  Sometimes, but there is always something to do at home.  I have yet to empty the fridge at camp so hope to get that taken care of this weekend.  I'll need to do that before going to the dump.  Not much else going on.

There is still a lot of color in the mountains, plenty of birch, beech, aspen and soon tamarack.  It's very, very pretty.  This was the view on my way home from yesterday's dog walk to the mailbox.

The mountain, looking across the road by my driveway.  I love this time of year.

I DID IT!!!

Well I suppose I could rescind it, but this morning I turned in my notice that December 19 will be my last day of work here at CEFLS.  It's amazing to think about.  After 30 years of driving 1 1/2 hours every day I'll be a retired homebody.

Of course everyone asks "What will you do?"  The appropriate answer, of course, is WHATEVER I WANT TO.  I'll go to RI for Christmas and stay a while.  Some suggest I shut down my house and spend the winter in RI but I won't do that this year.  Maybe another time, if I feel my mother needs that.

December is an odd time to retire, but it works out for my 30 years of service with the retirement system and my 62nd birthday.  It was an incredibly difficult decision to make, mostly because of the money, but once I filled out the paperwork I felt relieved and free.  Now that I've made it official I feel even better.  Do I have regrets?  Not a bit.  Yet.

Who, me?

Every once in a while I take an online personality/career/dog breed test, usually from Facebook.  This is risky and I don't do it often.  I did it today (why?) to find out what adjective describes me.  What did I get?

You are:

Intriguing

You have a unique and extremely fascinating approach to life. You are curious, brilliant, and firmly authentic. You are genuinely admired by people, yet you never get caught up in all the praise. Most importantly though, you know how to be yourself at all times and never need to apologize. You're loved for who you are.

Wood and more wood.  The shed isn't quite full and there are 2 huge stacks outside.  Thank you Bill, and thank you PINS.

Treasure isn't very good at having her picture taken but she finally stood still long enough for this one.

Busy busy busy but slowing down

Boy was Columbus Day weekend a busy time.  It always is, and probably it wasn't as busy as it is some years but maybe I'm just getting older...

There was lousy weather on Saturday and I didn't do much during the day, just a dump run and chores.  It was a beautiful drive because there's still quite a bit of color in the mountains.  Mostly yellows and orange-y colors but still enough to make you sigh.  I had a nice breakfast at Big Daddy's (hey, should we write up BD's for TripAdvisor?) with Linda, Fred and Bill.  Seriously, the food wasn't bad.

Sunday was a gorgeous, sunny and warm day.  Really a banner day.  I came to Plattsburgh with Linda to check out the Clinton Co. Historical Assoc.'s art and book sale.  We didn't stay long, saw some people we knew, and took a scenic ride home.  The mountains were still pretty.

Sunday afternoon we celebrated Michael & Stephanie's wedding anniversary in the afternoon.  It was a nice crowd and we had a very pleasant time.  The view from their camp was great, a glassy lake with colors on the far shore reflected nicely.  Tess had taken off to walk the bog with strangers so wasn't home when I left, but when I got home she sure was barking to be let in, and was very happy to see me.  Does she connect the fact that no one lets her in with my appearance in the woods?  Doubtful.  Who knows, maybe dogs think we can be in two places at one time.

Sunday night was pie and coffee at the Holt's with the same crowd.  And we didn't even run out of things to talk about.  Good pie, nice people.

Monday was another beautiful day.  I spent an hour and a half on Linda's dock with her.  Boy did we have a nice time.  It was incredibly silent and calm, a glassy lake again.  Wow it was grand.  We just stared at the view and visited.  Then we got to work, clearing things off the dock.  Took a break to have lunch with Bill and friends at M'side, then back to close Linda's Upper Camp.  That wasn't bad, involves many plastic bags but easily done.

Monday night I had dinner at the Holt's with Donny & Cindy Roberts, neighbors.  Donny is my plowman and a great resource and asset to the neighborhood.  We had a good time talking about the neighborhood.  I think we covered just about everyone.

Back to work yesterday, then to Linda's for dinner last night.  She had planned to leave today but Erdvilas wasn't up to it so they're leaving tomorrow instead.  We always celebrate their last night here with dinner & bubbly, so last night we had dinner (no bubbly, saving that for tonight) courtesy of Brian.  Delicious bagels, lox, etc.  Very festive and fun.  Linda was sitting at the campfire when I arrived so I joined her and we watched Channel Chipmunk.  2 very animated 'munks fighting with each other and running madly under our chairs and around our feet.  Sort of creepy but cute and entertaining.

Today is another warm day.  I guess it's supposed to rain hard tomorrow but will still be warm until the weekend.  High in the 40's on Sunday with a chance of snow.  I've been using my stove but it smokes something fierce so I have a call in to the chimney cleaner.  Creosote in the elbow, I think.  Not a big deal but hard to get a fire going.

Work is work.  Not much going on, just cataloging and weeding.  People are quiet and not complaining.  Me too.  or neither.

I love pumpkins.  These are at a great farm stand in Peru.  They go on for miles and miles and are just beautiful.  I always buy pumpkins for people and give them away.

I missed the blood moon this morning--not just because I was asleep but also because it was cloudy and raining.  I slept with the bedroom window open last night so I could hear the rain.  It doesn't make as much noise anymore, now that we've lost so many leaves.  We have a lot of bare trees.  People coming this weekend might be a bit disappointed--we peaked more than a week ago and we're on the downward slope now.  At least the weather's supposed to be good until Monday, then we're due for rain.  We had the most perfect day on Sunday--sunny and 50's.  Boy was it grand.

Not much going on (yet).  Linda is still here but leaves next week.  She's the last of the summer residents so our "real life" begins then.  I didn't see Pat & Jim for quite a while, other things were happening, but had a really nice visit with them and Bill on Sunday.  That was Bill's birthday.  Linda hosted a wonderful birthday party for him Friday night with delicious food the name of which eludes me.  A German dish with pork products slow-cooked on a bed of sauerkraut.  Yum.

Sunday was book group and we had a lively discussion about You before me.  Probably the most we've talked about a book in quite a while.  Marylou came up with a great postcard game, providing the postcards.  We addressed 5 to ourselves, then took one from each person to send at some point in the future.  I like that.  Nice to send people mail.  I still enjoy the written word and write letters fairly often.  Well, weekly to my mother, less often to friends.  I like the immediacy of email for sure but I enjoy writing longer missives than are practical emails.

Dogs are behaving fairly well but they both seem to like to pee on the floor.  Tess has her favorite spot in front of the fridge (on the rug, which must now be replaced) and Treasure likes to pee in front of the bathroom door, on the vinyl floor.  WHAT'S UP WITH THIS????

I've been trying to walk them daily, to the mailbox & back, which is nearly a mile.  They love to run run run and really enjoy the walks.  Do I enjoy the walks?  Not really but I'm trying to establish a pattern and stick to it.

My relatives wanted to come to camp and start closing up tomorrow but another cousin and his wife were planning to come, so who knows how that will go.  I left a message with the closers, will email the visitors, and it's really not up to me to tell anyone much of anything.

My mother's been nagging me about getting a shingles shot--she loves to quote the TV and tells me weekly that 1 out of 3 Americans will get shingles.  But she can't remember if I had chicken pox.  So I'll get a shot I suppose.  And I need a flu shot as well.  I just need to be poked full of holes.

Work is fine.  The director is out for 3 weeks so we take turns being in charge.  It's very funny to see what issues people bring to the person in charge.  Should I do this?  Should I not do that?  I guess sometimes we all need help making decisions...

Scary stuff

"The new Living Planet Index report from the World Wildlife Fund opens with a jaw-dropping statistic: we've killed roughly half of the world's non-human vertebrate animal population since 1970."

I keep hearing about different species that are endangered, being poached, losing their habitat, etc. and it doesn't totally register until you see something like this.  I remember 1970 very clearly and it doesn't seem so long ago.  I think about the future of the planet but have a different perspective on it than someone who has children does.  Do I think about future generations?  Not so much, I'm more grounded in the here and now (after all, it's all about ME).  Do I worry about the future of the planet?  Yes, but I'm convinced there won't be much of a future for the planet--what we're doing is negligible to stop the damage, and the U.S. only constitutes a small fraction of the world's population.

Pretty gloomy for a Wednesday.  It's rainy and foggy and very pretty in Hawkeye.  I like fog and I miss the fog we always had in southern New England.  It's rarer here and is seasonal, happens in the fall and spring when the temperatures of the ground and air differ more.