Middle of the night

Can't blame it on alcohol this time, I'm just up and restless.  My day was too stimulating, I guess.  Started with breakfast with Linda and her company--blueberry pancakes on her porch, right on the water.  Very nice.  Then I stopped at the Nadals, spent 2 hours visiting with them on their porch, next to the water still.  Still, very still.  We finally had a calm day on the lake, it's been windy.  Came home for a bit, then back to Linda's for dock time.  That was fun, as it always is.  We laugh a lot.  It wasn't a prime dock day, though, there was a huge, low, dark cloud hovering above us.  Even that made us laugh.  I had dinner with Fred, Linda and Erd. at the Beach House, then stopped for a minute at Fred's for a quick visit.  OK, now I can have a day to myself, no?  I'll call my mother in the morning (every Saturday and Weds. mornings) then head to Plattsburgh, which I had thought of doing this morning but never made it. 

Jim & Judy came to watch the convention after all, and we had a good time.  I watched lots of very good speeches before they arrived at 9:30, then we watched the BIG speech.  I though it was long but Hillary had a lot to say.  None of us fell asleep and it was nice to be together.  I didn't get to bed until after midnight, very rare for me.  So tonight I'm back to my sometime-pattern of getting to bed at a decent hour, then getting up during the night.  Frustrating but when one doesn't have to go to work what difference does it make, really?

A friend from college is planning to come at the end of August, which will be very nice.  We spent a lot of time together when I lived in Conn., shared a house with another friend in Westport after we graduated.  Saw Paul Newman together.  Laughed a lot.  A LOT.  He still lives in Conn., has 2 grown children and a good life.  We will have a good time but we will miss our friend Sally, who was my roommate for 4 years and died when she was in law school and I was in graduate school.  We'll talk about her and I will wish she were still alive so I could find out how her life turned out, and tell her how my life is going.  But it will be nice to see Ted and I think we'll have a good visit.

The dogs are sound asleep--they used to get up with me when I have these middle-of-the night bouts, but now they know I'll just sit on the couch with the computer (which Tess sometimes nudges if she thinks I should pay attention to HER and not this screen) and will eventually join them back in bed.

So what is it that's keeping me up?  Thinking about my house, mostly tonight.  Things I should do to it before Ted comes, to make it look better.  If it's nice we can stay in camp, but if we stay here I need to do some purging.  I have 2 rooms that are full of clutter--winter things, books, furniture I don't use, stuff, just stuff.  I can make this house look better, I know I can.

Dock day extraordinaire

Yesterday was perfection.  I had coffee with friends, came home to get the dogs, then went to camp for a Dock Day.  It was hot, very hot, but there was a cool breeze on the dock and the water temp is perfection.  I read, stared into space and swam (just a little).  The dogs did the same except for the reading.  I promised them I would spend the day with them and was true to my word.  They were wonderful, stuck close to me the whole afternoon. 

I went to see P&J briefly in the afternoon, then went to the Beach House for dinner with a big group to celebrate a friend's birthday.  Huge group, and I ate too much food and drank too much beer.  I paid for that at 2 this morning, wide awake, thinking bad thoughts about myself.  What did I do for distraction?  I tidied up the piles of books in the boat house.  I was tempted to do the dishes in main camp but decided that would be a bit extreme.  I did get back to sleep, woke at 5:30 and got up at 6:30.  Nice visit with F. over coffee this morning, now I'm home daring myself to clean.  I've organized papers, balanced my checkbook, put away the laundry, now what?

No big plans for the next few days, which feels just grand.  REALLY grand.  I mowed my lawn but need to weed whack a lot to complete the process.  I have to clean and fill the hummingbird feeder at the boat house.  I need to dead head the flowers on the deck, and I should fertilize them as well.  I bought  new bookcase for the bedroom and must put it together and replace the tottery one I use for clothes storage.  Fred said this morning he was trying to picture storing clothes in a bookcase.  My only response to that is that it isn't pretty.  The room I use for a bedroom was designed to be my basketmaking studio so has no closet.  One entire wall is a window, another wall has 2 doors, there's really only one place to put the bed, and there's only room for one bureau, so I use a bookcase for pants and sweatshirts.  I laugh at myself and the way I "organize" my things.  Always a cataloger.  I'm trying to get rid of a lot of books, all fiction, that I've read recently.  I think I'll give them to my friend Judy and let her deal with them.  I passed some Richard Russo books to Sue, who is loving them.  I'm really loving Moving on, by McMurtry (for the third time)(but it's 800 pages and I don't remember much of it).  It's a real project to read it but it's wonderful.

May watch the Convention tonight with Judy and maybe Jim.  Wow would it be a late night if we stayed up to watch the acceptance speech.  But it would be historical and worth watching.  I could record it and watch it tomorrow, but would that be the same?  Anyway I'll be at home tonight--cousins due in camp later today.  I'm so spoiled, having so much time there alone and with just my sister.

 ROGERS WOMEN!  Here are my sister, my mother and me in the front garden at my mother's house.  We had a very nice visit, lots of relaxation and reading and spending time together.  I'm going back in mid-August, when Mark will be on vacation.  I'm going to "help" him but really am hoping mostly for beach days.

My sister took this shot of a calm morning on Silver Lake.  I love it.

Right now it's 3:30 a.m. and I'm at home.  I was sleeping in the boat house but woke at 2 and couldn't get back to sleep so the dogs egged me on and I came home.  Television is my best sleep-aid (OK, maybe not my BEST, there are magic drops from Italy that help) so I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm off to Plattsburgh in the early morning, a quick trip for blood work and to get dog food.  Then what?  Home, maybe mow the lawn but definitely finish cleaning the boat house and camp after cooking dinner for book group Sunday.  We barely mentioned the books (Boys in the boat and Little women) but had  nice time anyway.  Marylou brought the most excellent mango salsa and pesto (I could have eaten tubs and tubs of both of those things, wow were they good.  Thank you, Andy.

Today was not particularly productive, but I had a good time.  Road trip with F.,  AuSable and a couple of farm stands in Peru.  Got some excellent corn, wow.  Finally found some pickling cukes but only a few for sandwiches, not enough yet for pickling.  This year I'm making million dollar pickles again, they were a big success last year.

Trying to get ready for upcoming family time--cousins coming to camp this weekend, more and more cousins arriving next week for the annual meeting/gathering.  This means it's AUGUST (almost). 

Busy season

It sure is summer in Hawkeye, wow has it been busy.  Camps are full, swimming is great, dock time if wonderful.  I had a good week but am ready for a quiet break I think, and that's what today may be.

My Dish technician came last Sunday--the TV wasn't giving me all it could.  Oh yes, there was a problem: branches blocking the signal.  Duh, boy did I feel silly.  He cut the branches and wow, now all is well.  He was very nice, has 2 Labs (of course, doesn't everyone?) and is interested in maybe returning in the fall to hunt deer on my land (with my encouragement). I slept in the boat house, with loud loons on the lake.

Monday was a Plattsburgh day, haircut and lunch with Barb, plus some groceries.  Not a bad day at all.  Visited with Linda & F. after that, then it rained (much needed).

Tuesday it was 47 when I got up.  I set 4 mouse traps, having a stable mouse population in the bathroom (the bathroom???).  All 4 were licked clean but not sprung, so I'm just fattening up the little boogers.  I had coffee with friends, twice.  J&M reported following a moose down the hardtop, not far from OHR.  Jimmy says there are moose tracks in the road not far from my driveway.  I almost hit a huge deer in my driveway.  A HUGE deer.  A STUPID deer.  The deer have feasted on my hostas and lily buds but I blame myself for not spraying as I had intended--Liquid Fence is a great repellent.

Big excitement this week was my sighting of an indigo bunting!  I've wanted to see one for many, many years.  Most of the people I know who work in the woods have reported many sightings, but I've never seen one.  This one was flying across the road in front of me.  Wow what a treat.

Great dock time with Linda this week, a couple of swell afternoons.  One afternoon we swam and swam, laughed and splashed a lot.  Just a couple of fat old ladies having water fun.  It has been hot (by Hawkeye standards), was nearly 90 yesterday.  I was in Plattsburgh for many hours, leaving the dogs at home in a very warm house.  I can't leave the front door open when I'm not home so there's no effective cross breeze for them.  Today I promised I'd spend many hours with them and so far I've been true to that.

I finally got on a mouse elimination roll and have killed 5 in the bathroom so far.  How many are there?  Anyone's guess, but many friends are having mouse infestations this summer.  It's strange to have them indoors this time of year, they don't usually come in until it cools off in the fall.

Right now Bill's work crew is stacking the last of my firewood in 90-degree heat.  Lucky me!  I bought 6 cords this year, still having some left from last winter.  My stove is efficient, burns less and gives off more heat, so I'm burning less each winter.

This week looks pretty quiet, I have to go to Plattsburgh to have bloodwork done, and Weds. is a birthday celebration for a friend (yeah, as if I'd celebrate the birthday of a non-friend).   I did not watch the Republicans in Cleveland, doubt that I'll watch the Democrats this week but you never know.  Tomorrow is a double-duty social day.  Brunch at 1 and book group at the boat house in the evening.  Can it be true that August is coming soon?  

Home again at last

This was yesterday's sunrise.  I got up at 5 this morning, hoping for a repeat, but it was cloudy and gray instead. 

It's been a busy 3 weeks.  My sister flew into Montreal at the end of June and I picked her up there.  How great to be together again.  We had some time at camp to ourselves, no one else was there and it was wonderful.  Good enough weather.  We hit the social highlights, saw pretty much everyone, and swam a lot.  The boat house dock isn't in this year, but that isn't really an issue.  We use the main dock, or get in on the rocks at the boat house.  The water was cool in June but is warmer now, very nice.

One of my cousins lives in the Finger Lakes ad she & Molly wanted to see each other so Molly & I drove to her house on Owasco Lake and spent the night.  It was fine  but I was a nervous wreck about having the dogs there.  Treasure, of course, took off as soon as we got there.  They live on a point, far from the road, so it was worrisome but not too bad.  She ran around a bit then came back to the house.  We had a good visit, complete with a nice boat ride.  We left the morning of 4th of July weekend, yikes what a mess that turned out to be.  The traffic in Conn. was awful, which wouldn't have been much of a real problem for me except that the rear brakes of my car crapped out and were grinding the whole time.  I was a wreck but of course we made it to Rhode Island just fine.  We spent 10 days at my mother's and it was very good.  The weather was just what we expected, some hot and humid and some rain.  We went to the beach 3 times, swam in the very cold ocean and had a nice time.

My mother's sister died at the end of June and there was a memorial service in Lexington, Mass., which we went to.  My mother wrote a eulogy, which Molly delivered.  The service was fine, both Molly and I were very emotional.  This was my mother's only sister and even though she was 93 it was still very sad.  I think I was especially emotional because I was thinking of my 90-year-old mother. 

The beach we went to was my mother's town beach (one of 2)--newly re-opened, no lifeguard, food or bathrooms, so not many people there.  It's a wonderful place, next to a wildlife preserve and totally uncrowded.  Waves not too big, water a perfect (cool) temperature.  Boy did we have some good beach days.  That was grand.

Molly and I came back on Monday, an easy drive home.  We had more days at camp without company and we totally enjoyed it.  My cousin John came on Tuesday to visit (it was his mother who died), we had a good time with him.  Wednesday was Molly's last day in the states so we didn't do much, lots of sitting around reading, swimming, napping, enjoying each other.  Thursday afternoon I drove her to the Montreal airport and away she went, back to Italy.  I miss her and am slowly getting used to my "regular" life.  It's summer in Hawkeye and there are lots of people here so my social life is rapidly picking up.

Yesterday I had coffee and breakfast with Fred and Linda, dinner last night with Bill & Fred.  This morning I had coffee and a visit with Duncan and Sue, then went to Keene to see Julie.  Tonight Duncan and Sue are having a few people over to see the work that's been done on their camp.  After that I'll return to the boat house for a quiet night.

I had a great time with my dog breeder this week.  Some friends have a puppy from her and they had Sue come to help with training of the pup, who is now 8 months old.  I was the stranger who arrived at their camp to see if the pup would jump on me so they could correct that behavior.  He didn't jump on me, but I had taken Treasure along so the Sue could see her again--she hadn't seen her for almost 5 years.  Treasure acted as the distraction so they could teach the pup to COME even though he was distracted--very distracted by Treasure.  I learned a lot about training and had a nice visit with Sue.  I just love being with her, she knows so much about dogs it's fascinating talking to her.  That was a highlight of my week.

Tomorrow morning a technician is coming to fix the cabling for my satellite dish so my TV will be normal again.  The last time a tech came he said he could fix the problem then but not the next time.  Well, hello "next time."  Don't know if it will be the same tech or not, but I bet he will have to go under the house to work on the cables.  Yuck.

So I miss my sister but we were lucky to have so much time alone together.  Is "alone together" right?  Can you be alone if you're together?  Anyway, it was just the two of us for several days and we loved it.