What retirement means

is that, if you don't feel like doing something constructive today you can always do it tomorrow.  Or the next day.  Or next week.  or not at all.  I had a good morning--went to the dump, then to AuSable to buy paper plates and napkins, then came home to "rest."  Then I used my nifty new folding saw (which will cut trees up to 6" in diameter) to cut down the tree that was growing up into my deck, then cut up the downed trees that were blocking the bottom of the driveway, then huffed and puffed from the exertion.  Oh I'm a huffer all right.  I dumped out some of my planters, they're all looking pretty scruffy but some of them still have blooming plants so I had mercy on them.  I cleaned my wood stove, including the windows in the front.  Now I have a toasty fire going just to take the chill off, it's 60 and fine but I decided to warm the living room a bit.

What I did not do was take my laundry to the Holts, or take a shower at the Holts, or visit P&J, or other things on my long list of tasks.  I did get to cross off a few things and that was satisfying.  I also realized that I have 2 rain barrels full of water so I can flush my toilet.  duh.  I always collect rain water in barrels for watering the plants and have prided myself in having that water in case I need flushing water.  So why did it take me a whole day to think of that? I've settled into the waterless life I (too) often live.  Will wash the dishes this afternoon, that's not hard with a dishpan.

The dogs have had a good couple of days, I've been with them nearly the whole time.  Good girls.  They run down the driveway, barking, several times a day.  As far as I could tell Treasure was barking at falling leaves--Tess was not fooled by that, though.  I put food in the bird feeder but so far no one has discovered that.  I need to strip the upstairs bed and wash those sheets.  And of course there are the refrigerators at camp...   I'd be more inclined to work on those if I thought there was any food I might find palatable in them.

Not my finest week

OK, so it starts with a dead battery in my nowhere-near-paid-for car and a free ride in the tow truck.  Moves on to a dead telephone.  Good things happen: the car is fixed and fine, and today the phone came back on.  But wait...the well is dry.  This is not a surprise, it's been very dry and another year the same thing happened.  Was this really necessary?  I committed the cardinal sin of doing TWO loads of wash today, which I knew was probably a mistake but apparently I just couldn't resist washing my new sweater.  duh.  I collected water from a friend's camp, enough for a day or two, and have access to the Holts' house where water is plentiful.  It could be worse, it could be January with ice in the well.  I'd rather have this, if there's a possible "rather" at this point.

Other than my crises it was a fine week.  oh yes, just fine.  Well, the fall color is coming along nicely and the trees are ripening rapidly.  I think we'll see peak foliage within the next few days.  It's going to be a good year after all with lots of bright colors.  Not many oranges but some good reds.

Duncan & Sue are leaving in the morning, I'm sorry to see them go but they have been here for a month.  Joe & Martha leave on Monday and I'm sorry to see them go but it IS October, and that's when they head back to Georgia.  Linda will be here for 2 more weeks, next weekend will be busy so things are happening.  I need to go to camp to start closing up.  I haven't been down there in quite a while, I know the fridge in main camp and the fridge in the boat house are in need of cleaning out.  I doubt I'll sleep in the boat house again this year, nights are too cold to suit me.

I always claim to like the month of November, but wow the color right now is really grand and the woods are pretty.  I'll adjust to the loss of leaves, and will like being able to see through the woods again.  I do like living where there are 4 fer shure seasons, I can't complain when we move from one to another.

Reckless but not endangered

I left the car key in the "on" position Sat. night so Sunday I had a dead battery.  A very dead battery.  Joe & I tried jumping it but that just didn't work.  I hitched a ride to P&J's at noon, then walked home from there.  It's a little more than a mile and it was  beautiful sunny day so I sort of enjoyed the walk.  The first half is a pretty steep hill, though, so of course I was asthmatic after getting home.

Lin picked me up for book group Sun. night and we went to Linda's for dinner.  Really nice time, it was our last real meet before Linda leaves so we decided to have dinner together at my house in 2 weeks.  A farewell to Linda.  Hard to believe she's leaving soon.  Oh my.

Yesterday I was at Fred's for coffee with Linda and poor Joe was worried when he couldn't get in touch with me so he came to my house (where I wasn't).  When I got home Joe came over and we tried starting the car again, no luck again.  I called a tow truck and rode to Plattsburgh with my car.  Took it to the Subaru dealer there (instead of the Burlington dealership I've been taking my car to for the last 2 years), waited 3 hours, feeling fortunate that they were going to fix it the same day.  We'd blow a fuse and the battery was beyond charging so I got a new battery & fuse, plus they threw in a free car wash.  The most expensive car wash I've had in a long time.  Anyway, the car is back to herself and all is fine.  I could afford the cost, even have enough left over to buy a new pair of sunglasses.

Last night was lamb dinner at Linda's, a nice evening with other friends.  I left before the debate really started, I wasn't that interested in watching it anyway, and I knew it would be loud and probably unpleasant so I just went home.  And didn't watch it.

This morning I got up early but fell asleep on the couch and slept for THREE HOURS.  Yikes.  It was very strange.  Sound asleep, very detailed dreams.  I got up, went to Plattsburgh and ran a few errands before stopping by campaign headquarters for our Congressional candidate to make phone calls for an hour.  I was supposed to stay longer but I got sort of bored.  It was in the afternoon so of course most people weren't home.  I did talk to 6 or 7 people, and only one person hung up on me.  Do I think I was effective?  Maybe for 1 or 2 of the people I spoke with.  Who knows.  If I were really committed I'd go door-to-door but I'm not in the mood for that these days.  So I'll go back on Thursday and make some more unanswered phone calls.

The fall color is coming along.  Early morning sun through yellow leaves is beautiful in my yard, a bright glow.

Autumnal Saturday

 A little bit of color at the bird feeder in my yard.  Not much to offer but it's something.

This is my maple tree--it's usually a brilliant orange but this year it's more like brown.  It's been dry, dry, dry and the color is just not what it usually is.

Tess is depressed because there's no bright color this fall.  She is happy that outside temps have dropped, though, so now there are fires in the wood stove.  I guess we have frost warnings for tonight.  I brought in my impatiens, the rest of the plants can go to hell, they gave up on me a long time ago so I gave up on them, too.

Had a pretty good day today, went to coffee and breakfast with friends, home to do laundry, clean the kitchen, set some more mouse traps.  Saw friends tonight for dinner and am now settled in, waiting to get sleepy for bed.  It was a beautiful day though pretty cool, 50's I think.  Won't be long before 50 is a pipe dream.

First day of fall

I have these mums on my deck--they're so bright that sometimes when you see them it's as if a light is shining on them.  Very pretty, very autumnal and nice.

I had a good day today, didn't go to Plattsburgh as originally planned.  I went to Westport to the vet's to get Tess' med.--it's almost an hour away but it's a very nice drive through the mountains.  There's just the hint of color starting in the mountains.

I came home the back way, across a long dirt road into the "old" neighborhood, where we lived for 6 years before moving to this house.  Our house, which was a cute little one-bedroom house has been turned into something entirely different, which is fine.  It's been sold twice, I think, since we sold it.  Anyway, now it's blue and strange and I have no emotional reaction to seeing it.  It was nice to see the changes in the neighborhood, I guess, there are a lot of new houses along the way.

I spent more than 2 hours on Linda's dock with her, oh we have such a good time doing that.  We swam in what felt like cold water, but the temp is a steady 71 degrees.  It was a warm day with hot sun and a cool breeze, not a cold wind.  A couple of boats on the lake but mostly just loons, a heron, a turkey vulture, a gull and a bunch of crows.  All very nice.

I came home for a while to be with the dogs, then went back to Linda's for drinks around the campfire.  That was lovely.  She has birdfeeders near the fireplace with very busy nuthatches and chickadees, and an occasional goldfinch.  We spend lots of time watching the birds, Linda dubbed it Channel Chickadee.  We are easily entertained when we're together.

Tomorrow looks pretty nifty.  NO PLANS.  No coffee in with friends in the morning, no lunch in Plattsburgh, no shopping.  I may hit a farm stand, and may buy a new lawnmower (but I doubt that).  Temps are due to be in the 50's, maybe 60--a huge change from today's sunny, warm dock temps.  Rain tonight.  It's warm enough to sleep in the boat house but I like being at home and the dogs are at peace, so here I'll stay.

Getting colorful slowly

This is the view from the farmers market, not very colorful just yet but there is a hint of red in the mountains.  We have some oranges and reds around here but the color is slow to arrive and will be muted this year, I think.  It's been very dry and the birches seem to be just losing their leaves rather than trading in green for yellow.  Time will tell, and there will be color, maybe not the incredible show we sometimes have, but there is color coming.

I've been busy--everyone wants to spend time together now that the season is drawing to a close.  My mother asked me how I got involved with "those people who always want to eat together."  Yes, it's true we like to have dinners together--she said, "What's wrong with snacks?  Why do you always have to have dinner?"  Sometimes we have coffee in the morning, sometimes we just have drinks and snacks, but I guess I mostly report the dinners to her.

I hosted dinner for Duncan & Sue and J&M the other night, that was a lot of fun and very nice.  I can only fit about 5 at my dinner table comfortably so it worked out.  I really like entertaining, now that I'm retired and no longer fuss about how much work it is to clean and prepare for company.  It's a leisurely activity for me and I like cooking and hauling out the silver and good glasses.

I spent most of the day in Plattsburgh, without the dogs.  I always take the dogs but today had to have the car inspected so The Ladies had to stay home.  They didn't seem to mind and mostly just slept when I finally came home.  I was only home for an hour or so, then went to a delicious dinner at J&M's, had a really nice time there.  Hard to believe how much my life will change after next week, then even more after Columbus Day.  Yes, winter will come and here I'll be.

I went to the campaign headquarters of our Congressional candidate in Plattsburgh to offer my volunteering services.  I was all set to do some phoning tomorrow afternoon but then I remembered that I have to go to Westport to get pills for Tess.  Westport is in the opposite direction from Plattsburgh, about an hour from my house, so I decided to postpone my volunteering until next week.  What a wuss.  I will do it next week, though.  I talked to the young man who is staffing the headquarters and regaled him with tales of my earlier campaigning efforts.   Gene McCarthy, George McGovern, Rush Holt.  And some phone bank work for fundraisers.  My mother had us go door-to-door for school board candidates when we were young, I think we hated that but it was good experience and got me trained for campaigning later in life.  Who DOESN'T go door-to-door for something as a kid?  Selling cookies for Girl Scouts, and my poor sister went around peddling light bulbs one time.  Light bulbs?  Sure, why not.

The weather has been near perfect, maybe a little too warm for reality.  It's been in the 70's and near 80 with a very warm sun but cool wind/breeze.  I've had some really nice dock time with Linda, our annual Fall Festival of Cool Water.  The lake is still pretty warm but it's getting colder and harder to get into.  This weekend it might be only in the 50's so maybe there will be no docking, but I can sit on my deck in the sun and read to the dogs.

The mice have settled in here at 58OHR.  I've got the definitive trap collection, I think I have every kind of killing trap.  I don't do live trapping and I sure don't do the glue traps.  Anyway, I found the rodent raceway under my kitchen sink--and WHACK!  I just heard another one giving its life for me.  That makes a total of 18 I've killed since July.  We all agree it's odd to have indoor mice in the summer, they don't usually move in until the weather changes (or maybe they're responding to autumn leaves...) but this year they settled right in early.  My record is 21 and I think I'll pass that soon.  Yesterday I caught 4 under the sink in a single day.  I've found the best bait is not the traditional peanut butter, but Tootsie Rolls.  Much much more appealing to North Country mice.  Does this all sound disgusting?  I suppose it does, but mice are so much a part of life here in the woods that I don't fuss, I just trap.

The dogs continue to thrive.  Tess is doing very well, is slightly deaf but still very mobile for a 13-year-old Lab.  Treasure is a true treasure and I love her dearly.  She's only 6.  I worry about Tess, which is natural, but she reassures me regularly that she can bark at the bogeyman just like a 3-year-old dog.  She's a sweetie.

Not frosty yet

It was 39 this morning, not the frost that was predicted.  I'm eager to have a frost, hoping it will kill off the ragweed so endearing to Tess.  This was close but not quite.  We've had heavy mist in the morning, some even up here at my house but a lot on the lake.  I went swimming with Linda yesterday--water temp was 71, air temp in the 60's.  The water felt cold at first, but after moving around a bit it was really lovely.  Getting out, not so lovely, but the sun is still warm though much lower in the sky.

I went to 2 farm stands with Duncan & Sue yesterday morning, a nice outing.  Bought corn, cider, squash, yellow carrots and apples.  Yum.  Got cider donuts for Linda and her company, very nice.  We had a group breakfast at Duncan & Sue's, "Hawkeye, party of 9?" was a  big success.  We ate in front of the fire, in the living room, while Linda cooked pancakes on the outside porch.  Lots of food, lots of good friends, a great time.

Today I'm going to Plattsburgh for lunch with Barb, always fun.  I have to get dog food (didn't I just DO that?) and some staples for my staple gun.  Yes, I swear one of these days I will actually crawl under the house and staple up the insulation that's drooping.  Yes, I will.  No, really.

I've had fires in my stove for the last couple of days, standard for mid-September.  They're not terribly effective fires, I'm not in hot fire mode just yet.  Just taking the chill out of the living room I guess.

Yesterday afternoon I did something so un-like me: I took a long nap.  Man it felt delicious but threw me off completely.  I ended up at Linda's at 8 p.m., which is normally the time I'm getting ready for bed.  We sat in front of the campfire for a while (thankfully, no one broke into song), then went inside.  She has friends from Michigan visiting, very nice and happy people I enjoy visiting with.  The neighborhood is slowly emptying out, Jim & Judy left recently, the last renters at the Owl have left, the last of the Holts' renters have left.  Our camp is quiet and cold.  Not sure if I'll sleep in the boat house again this fall, I don't savor cold mornings there.  No progress on closing camp, I don't think that will happen any time soon.  Still food in the fridge in main camp and in the boat house, dock still in, nothing going on there.

Supposed to be warm today, in the mid-70's (is that different from 75?), even warmer tomorrow but maybe some rain in the afternoon.  We've had wonderful weather this September.  Not too warm for the mice to move into the house, though.  I caught #13 this morning, a small one, member of a new generation, just swell.

PAELLA!

That's shrimp in paella that Linda cooked on the campfire.  It's quite a feat but she's masterful at campfire cooking.  Delicious dish, so well cooked by Chef Hormes.

I had a nice day today, ending with paella.  I had coffee in the morning, then spent some time reading on my deck (to warm up after the 49-degree porch coffee) in the sun.  Went to camp for a little while, mostly just to clean up the garbage the dogs had spread all over the back porch.  huh.  

I went back to Linda's and we had some dock time, bright warm sunshine but the most incredible wind.  Big waves, hard to swim.  We had a good visit anyway.

Tonight I caught mouse #12, way to go!  Everyone is plagued by mice this season.  My reaction to that is pretty simple: welcome to my world.

Tomorrow I'm having coffee with Duncan & Sue, lunch with Julie in Plattsburgh and maybe a visit with some friends visiting from Calif., renting another friend's camp.  They're leaving on Thursday so I guess I should get down to see them tomorrow or not at all.

We're supposed to have a rainy Wednesday, but right now it's still clear and warm and not raining at all.  It's still very dry here and the fall color is slow to arrive (if it comes at all, there are those of us who fear the leaves will just dry up and fall off). 

The dogs are great, snoring right now and oblivious to what I'm doing.  Which is fine with me.

She's BACK!

 Tess is fully recovered and in great shape again, what a relief.  I was very upset and unsure what her problem was, but now she's off the cortisone, back on her anti-inflammatory drug and back her anti-itch drug and she's wagging her tail in circles again.  Whew!

She swims like a pro, though she doesn't chase or retrieve things.  These 2 Labs are the least retrieving retrievers I've ever had.  Tess used to swim out after sticks but now she just watches you throw the stick, shakes her head and walks away.  Stoopid people, throwing things into the lake.

Sunrise this morning from my deck.  I should have stayed in the boat house last night so I could have seen the mountain in this color, I bet it was just amazing.  I was lucky to see what I did, though, so I don't and won't complain.

Linda and I had a turkey dinner this week, it was a huge success, thanks to her hard work and cooking.  She cooked the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and sauerkraut.  I roasted vegetables and cooked a couple other things.  Mostly my part was setting up the porch at camp and breaking down the party when it was over.  People came at 5 except for some who came at 6, and everyone had a grand time (I assume).  The food was delicious, people were happy and jovial, alcohol flowed freely, Sue made a delicious chocolate birthday cake for Duncan and Annie brought a delicious pie.  J&M brought delicious wine.  Everything was perfect.  That porch is a grand place to have 14 people come for dinner to.

Yesterday I had coffee at Duncan & Sue's, joined by Linda and the people renting Bill's camp.  What a nice time--they have a wonderful screened porch, too, and we sat there watching the hummingbirds and each other.  Very nice.  This morning was coffee at Fred's with Linda, and a farewell siting of Jim & Judy, who leave for home today.  Fred and I went to a fall "festival" in Wilmington.  It didn't amount to much but we each bought a couple of things to support the vendors (and the library--Fred, like most of my friends can't resist used books).  I went to the dump when I got home, now I'm too warm, sitting in my living room.  It's not exactly a dock day but I may venture to camp to sit on the boat house porch to catch the breeze that Linda reported to me a few minutes ago.  Last night I had dinner at Annie's with Jim & Judy, a very nice time.  Tonight?  I think I'll visit Joe & Martha, it's hard to believe they'll be leaving in 3 weeks.  THREE WEEKS!! 

I don't have much planned for the next few days.  A visit with Pat & Jim, lunch in Plattsburgh later in the week.  I have to have my car inspected--rats, it's also due for a servicing, which will be done in Burlington, where they can't do NYState inspections, so there will be 2 auto activities in the coming weeks.

It's still very warm here and we really need rain.  Maybe it will rain this afternoon, but I doubt it.  The leaves are starting to turn but whether that's because it's autumn or they're too dry it's hard to know.  My deck flowers all look like hell because I didn't water them.  My lawn needs to be mowed but it's too hot--will be cooler next week.  I paid a nice young  man (is 42 young?) to pull the brambles from the spot they'd taken over at the foot of my deck stairs.  Wow does it look great.  I'm enthusiastic about paying people to do things for me.  My bank balance is less enthusiastic about that, but I do it when I can.

Dogs are miraculously in fine shape.  Tess is snoring, under the table and Treasure is panting, out on the deck.  I think I'll try to do some reading.  I'm reading Nobody's fool for the second or 3rd time, it's our book group book.  I'm savoring it, truly savoring it.  What wonderful writing.

Warning: severe canine intestinal distress

I cut up a bunch of cucumbers but had some left (quite a few left) in a bag too close to the floor last night.  While I was indulging in oysters at Linda's the dogs ate at least 20 cukes.  I Googled "dogs and cucumbers" to see that no, cukes aren't harmful to dogs, but in large amounts could cause "soft stools."  Or maybe explosive diarrhea all over the floor all over the house.  No, it didn't warn about that, but that's what happened last night.  I spent most of the night letting the dogs out and in and out and in and cleaning up what didn't make it outside.  Oh honestly.  Poor Tess had a very bad time, Treasure wasn't as anxious to get outside RIGHT AWAY.  Anyway, that's all in the past and now they're exhausted and so am I.

I made my pickles this morning, I think they're too salty but will wait to taste them again to be sure.  Once many, many years ago my ex-husband wanted to have a stone crock of pickles at the sawmill for everyone to gather around.  We got the cukes, and he'd read somewhere that you had to have your salt concentration in the water enough to float an egg.  That's not true, no, that's not true.  We ended up burying the huge crock of (what could barely be called) pickles.  That was the end of that dream.

Right now I have  Yard Boy pulling up blackberry bushes in my yard.  He advertised in the local online news-thing, and I scooped him right up.  He's very nice and is hard at work while I do nothing.  I usually feel obligated to visit with or at least keep company with people who are doing work at my house but today I really don't have the energy or interest in doing that.  He's not local, his mother lives in Upper Jay and he's from Conn.  I'll probably never see him again, he's between jobs right now and just trying to pick up some cash.  I think we're a perfect fit.

It's a gorgeous September day.  It was 44 this morning, which felt way too chilly but I'd better get used to that, huh.  Now it's 73 and sunny with a slight breeze.  And crystal clear with a blue blue sky.  Oh my I do love September.

Midnight musings

I sure am tired of these late/middle of the night musings.  Tonight I slept soundly until midnight, when Tess started pacing around the bed.  Well, she's taking cortisone, which makes her thirsty, which leads to excessive peeing, and we don't want her to do that in the house, now do we?  So I'm up.  Yeah, I'm up. 

I had a nice evening with the Nadals, wine on their lakeside porch then delicious dinner.  They'll be heading home next week it seems.  I guess it's getting to be that time.  J&M will be leaving in a while, Linda will be here another six weeks or so and then WHAM the neighborhood reverts to its natural state.  That will feel very strange but it's an annual ritual.  What will I do this winter?  I made a $100 bet with Ted that it will be a hard, cold winter with a lot of snow.  He thinks La Nina is a bunch of hooey so the predictors are going to be wrong.  It would be worth the money to have him be right, that's certain.

I'm having some guy come to do yard work for me ("What???" says Fred.  "Can't you do your own yard work?")(well, he's going to pull up blackberries and weeds and the mess that's at the foot of my steps and NO!, I can't do that)(Oh, OK, maybe I could, but I don't want to).  I guess he's a young man, I found him through the online neighborhood rag, he posted a request for doing yard work for $20 an hour.  Fine, fine, come on over.  He lives in Conn. but his mother is up here and he's "between jobs."  Now watch, he'll be some 45-year-old loser.  No, he sounds young.  I guess he's coming Saturday.

I bought the last of the cucumbers at a farm stand that always has tons of cukes.  The woman there told me a blight took over the field.  That sounds strange, not long ago they had tons and tons of cukes.  Anyway, I took the last 1/2 peck they had for $3.50.  I threw out all the pickles I made earlier this summer, they were too spicy and no good, and for some reason I'm feeling driven to make another batch.  When they're good, they're good.  Now I know that, when they're bad, they're bad, too.  I don't usually put pickling spices in the pickles but I tried that last time.  There are red pepper flakes in pickling spices (who knew?) and they sure can ruin a batch.  I guess I'll spend much of Friday peeling and slicing cukes, they have to soak in salt water overnight.

I gave Tess a bit of a cortisone bath but didn't let the shampoo sit for 5 minutes, and didn't wash her legs at all, I just let them soak.  How does one get a dog to sit still for 5 minutes, fully lathered with special shampoo, the way the bottle directs?  I was lucky she let me lather her up for 60 seconds.  Now she's very shiny--I don't think I've ever given her a bath before, she swims in the summer and rolls in the snow in the winter.  And rolls in the ragweed in the fall, which is the whole problem now.

Oh, Tess has come back in and now Treasure is outside, trying to figure out what Tess did out there.  Come on Ladies, let's get back to bed.

Home alone

The Big Visit has ended.  Ted arrived Monday afternoon and left this afternoon.  Not an extended visit, just long enough to re-connect and re-affirm our close friendship.  We were close in college and lived together with another friend after we graduated.  We talked a lot about our friend Sally, who was my roommate all though college.  She died when she was in law school in the 70's and both Ted an I took her death very hard.  It would be so much fun to share our lives with her now, but oh well.

We spent hours talking, just talking.  Yesterday we went to Lake Placid (what else are you going to do?) and walked up and down Main St.  I was very nice and went into the bookstore to say hello to my former mother-in-law (and cousin's wife).  I introduced her to Ted so I'm sure it's all over the family now that I have a man friend (who s not Bill or Fred).  Big whoop.

We sat on the boat house porch for a long time when we got back from Placid, watching 4 loons and 3 kayakers.  The lake was extremely quiet and lovely.  Ted loves it here, which shouldn't surprise me, it's a wonderful place.  This morning he said he'd like to go back to Placid, so we did.  We found a coffee bar with a nice balcony overlooking Mirror Lake--we sat there yesterday and again today, it was lovely.

Ted's wife died when their children were about 10 and 12, so he talked a lot about losing her, raising the kids (who have both graduated from college and are gainfully employed), what life is like when you lose someone like that.  It was very sweet and nice, lots of fruitful conversations.

So now what?  After he left I went to the dump (what am I going to do with all the food I bought to feed him that we didn't eat?), took a shower, called my mother, and will go to Linda's to give her a full report soon.  Then tomorrow will come and my life will return to what passes for normal.  What is that?

Beautiful day

It's a beautiful August day, clear, sunny, slightly cool and breezy.  These are the days I remember from childhood--we'd climb a mountain, or the bluffs, or something, and it would be hot, very hot so we would be eager to get back to camp.  Rush back, put on our bathing suits and the dock would be windy and cool and the water cold.  What a disappointment!   Lately the water has been much warmer than I remember it, now merely refreshing, not chilling.

I've had some really wonderful dock days with Linda, boy we have fun together.  We watch boaters and people on jet-skis with our binoculars, we talk to the neighbors, we laugh (a lot) and we swim.  She has the best water toys, a noodle is one of our favorites.

I've just about finished with the cleaning project.  Or maybe I've just given up.  I vacuumed and swept the downstairs to death, now just have the upstairs bedroom to vacuum.  And empty the wastebaskets.  The dogs got all excited when I pulled out the contractor-sized garbage bag: garbage bags mean a trip to the dump and a trip to the dump means TREATS from Dump Bob.  Sorry, ladies, the dump isn't open until Weds., I'm just getting ready for company.

I hosted book group last night on the boat house porch, all went well.  I made lasagna rolls from a recipe we shared 25 years ago at work.  We actually did discuss the book, though briefly of course.  We had a nice time and the loon showed up, just for effect.

I have to do the dishes from last night, I brought them home.  Not a big deal, just something I put off, doing dishes.  Have to take a shower.  Again, not a big deal, just something I put off.  Too busy watching morning news shows right now to interrupt myself.  But my company will be here in 3 hours so I have to at least think about getting these things done.

What am I going to do to entertain my company (let's call him Ted, that's his name)?  Such a good question.  Lake Placid?  Whiteface? The bluffs?  Boat ride? Cocktails on the boat house porch?  Maybe even a trip to the vet, as Tess is not doing well with her ragweed allergy at all.  How long do I wait before taking her in?  She's taking all the meds that have been prescribed but she's just not right, poor dear.

I'm feeling pretty lucky, and looking forward to seeing my friend.

Making progress, taking breaks

My cleaning work is coming along.  If only I'd learn to do this OFTEN, it wouldn't be such a chore.  I finished the upstairs bathroom, which included cleaning the shower and washing the floor.  I got started on the downstairs bathroom and dusted/swept the stairs.  Boy that doesn't sound like much, but I'm closing in on the end of my list.  Tonight I'll finish with the downstairs bathroom.  I think I'll have to wash the upstairs floor--it's rough pine boards and I don't think sweeping or Swiffering will get rid of the dust.  There's a clean path from the top of the stairs to the bathroom, duh, but the floor will look good when I finish.  I have vacuuming to do and, worst of all, mowing the lawn.  I did some path clearing at the foot of the deck stairs, which is a huge improvement.  Now I must mow mow mow.  But not NOW, it's too hot.

I took a break this afternoon and spent 2 1/2 hours with Linda on her dock.  It was glorious, warm sun and cool water, lots of swimming.  Oh so pleasant.

I went to the dump and to AuSable this morning, always feels good to get rid of things.  I had coffee with Fred and Linda, looking from F's porch to a calm and gorgeous lake.  Ahhhhhh, this is a nice time of year.

Different camera, same dog

I bought a new camera today, but not the one I thought I was getting--duh.  I'm the worst consumer.  I just pointed at the box and said "that's the one I want," without checking it out.  Oh well, it's a Coolpix, just a different one from the one I meant to buy.  It's waterproof and so is a little bigger than what I wanted, but who knows, I may use it underwater some time.  Oh wait, I just realized I can use it when I'm in the water and want to shoot pictures of the dogs (or people) on the dock.  OK, now I feel better.

Anyway, this is Treasure, taken by my new Nikon.  She looks the same as she did with the old cameras.

I had a busy day but not busy in the way I should have been.  I went to Plattsburgh, ran a lot of errands (including the purchase of the camera), bought produce at a farm stand, had lunch with Julie, baked the dogs in a hot car, then came home.  I went to some friends' camp to drop off some books and they were sitting on their dock with other friends.  A party!  It was nice, all of the people there are leaving tomorrow, some will return for Columbus Day but others will be gone for the next year.  Hard to believe we're flying into September already.  I need to have my stovepipe cleaned, I'll be burning wood within the month I bet.

I've been cleaning and sorting all week, have been able to cross off a lot of things on my list, though there are still quite a few left.  I leave the most disagreeable jobs for last.  That's dumb.  I still have to mow and weed whack, and clean the bathrooms and shower.  I can re-write my list many times, but those will still be on it.  Finish cleaning the kitchen, vacuum, clean the upstairs hallway, vacuum the extra bedroom, oh it could go on forever.  I did clean my bedroom and the laundry room and got a good start on the living room.  I suppose if I dusted regularly dusting wouldn't be such a chore, right?  When we were kids we had assigned cleaning jobs every weekend.  My usual job was to empty and wash the ashtrays--both parents smoked and it sure felt as if no one else ever emptied the ashtrays, lots of butts every weekend.  Anyway, we dusted often so you'd think that would be part of my cleaning routine.  But no, it turns out I don't have a cleaning routine.  I clean when someone is coming to visit.  One might conclude I don't feel that I'm worthy of having a clean house just for me, but that isn't true, it's just that I don't like to clean.  Really don't like to.

Tomorrow morning will be coffee with Fred and Linda, then I really need to make myself finish my house.  I have a good dump load--going there will distract me.  I should buy cold cuts, so a trip to the store in Redford may be called for (though maybe I'll save that for Sunday).  I have to have to have to get this house in order.

Boat ride

 Went on a wonderful boat ride last night with friends: here is the boat house, looking quite imposing and sturdy.

And here's our shore front--the small cabin on the water is the one communal sleeping cabin.  There are 6 sleeping cabins, one for each of the 5 Rogers families, and Dockside, the one pictured here.

It was a great boat ride, we went around the whole lake and were reminded how lucky we are to have so much "forever wild" state land at Silver Lake.

I've been working on my house, just cleaning cleaning cleaning and trying to reach some kind of peace with the place.  It's overwhelming and I can't keep up with it, but I do like living here.  I have a college friend coming next week, the reason for my frenzy.  Tomorrow I'll go to Plattsburgh for groceries, lunch with Julie and errands.  Today I'll go to AuSable Forks to mail a letter to my mother and buy some wine and the very nice local liquor store there.  And I'll clean my 2 bathrooms, oh yes I will.  Oh how I hate cleaning bathrooms!

BEACH TIME!  That would be me, in the foreground, and Mark dozing next to me.  We had a good time in RI, some excellent beaching.  The water was crystal clear, which is necessary for me to truly enjoy water.  I'm totally spoiled by sping-fed Silver Lake, where the water is clear down to 15 feet or more.

I went to my mother's on Monday the 15th, stayed until Sunday the 21st.  The traffic on the trip down was just awful, so much traffic, and I was very dozey so I stopped a few times and it took longer to get there.  Ugh.  I've learned that maybe August is not the best time to travel from one vacation spot to another.  My trip home was better but I came through VT and NH, around Boston.  It was an easy trip home, less traffic and I made good time.  I stopped at the NH Liquor Store, which I loved.  I like poking around liquor stores, a funny entertainment.  I got some excellent bourbon, a nice herbal vermouth for Erdvilas, a nice gin for Erdvilas, some whiskey for Jim Brousseau, some special gin for Fred--maybe that's it, I can't remember.  I didn't allow myself to wander through the wine section, way too tempting.  Anyway I spent plenty of money but loved it.

So I got home Sunday night, had a peaceful re-entry into Hawkeye Life.  It was very hot and humid in RI, too humid.  It has cleared here and cooled way off.  It was in the high 40's yesterday morning, 50's this morning, and in the 70's yesterday and today.  Yesterday I went to Plattsburgh, got my errands done and had a nice lunch with Barb.  Well, maybe the lunch wasn't so nice, the restaurant was packed and noisy and it took too long for our food to arrive.  But we enjoyed being together, which is really the point (except that we were both really hungry and got tired of waiting).

I went to Linda's for cocktails, tasting the bourbon I bought (which is delicious).  After drinks we went to Wilmington for ice cream with Fred, always a nice treat (both the ice cream and time spent with Fred).

I had trouble getting to sleep last night, then was up during the night and slept soundly on the couch this morning.  Yikes, Fred called at 8 and I was sleeping soundly on the couch.  I dreamed I was in the Miss America pageant.  Is this the new version of my anxiety dream?  Geez I hope not.  Anyway, Fred wanted to go to the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, so that's how we spent our day.  It was a fantastic August day, clear, sunny and warm.  The Wild Center was grand but Fred had limited mobility so that was a bit worrisome.  I walked the new trail there that's above the trees, very fancy and special..  It was great, good mountain views in the distance.

I just got home from Joe & Martha's, had a nice visit with them and their grandson.  Now I'm cooking some local corn for dinner.  I have a lot of housework to do, both inside and outdoors.  My college friend is coming next week and I really can't present my house in its current condition.  Oh my oh my there is a lot to do!  I'm hoping we'll be able to sleep at camp but I need to get the house in better shape.  I got a bit of a start this afternoon.  Tomorrow is a boat ride with friends and dinner with Linda & Erdvilas.  But FIRST:  study the list I've made of chores and get some of them done.

My dollies

They're cute, they're dear, and they're mine.

Away we go

Leaving for Rhode Island in the morning.  I can't believe how well organized and nearly packed I am for this trip.  I never have this much ready before mornings.  Maybe that's because I opted to stay home today and tonight, tired of the social life that has consumed me for the past weeks.

We had a meeting of the shoreowners' association this afternoon.  That went well.  I've been president twice, now I'm a member of whatever "board" there is.  We have by-laws but don't seem to be paying much attention to term limits.  The woman who is president is great and no one else wants to do it so we're letting it go.  Anyway the meeting was fine.  The Town Supervisor was there and spoke well.  He's a big improvement over his predecessor, I feel good about out town government (except for the one councilman I truly can't stand).

I had to go to the boat house to change the bed there and dreaded going down.  I've been lucky this week, no one was in camp since Monday, but now my ex-husband and his wife are there with friends.  Oh how I wanted to avoid going there, but I needed some things from the boat house, needed to feed the hummingbirds, and wanted to change the bed.  YAY!  I did it.  Everyone was on the dock and my dogs surprised me by staying at my side the whole time.  This is all very silly and childish.  There was a time when I wanted to talk with Jamie, be friendly (I thought).  Now I don't.  I just don't.  We have single-sentence conversations when we're face to face, as we were at the family meeting last weekend. 

So why am I going to RI at the peak of my social season in Hawkeye?  Probably BECAUSE it's the peak of my season.  There are  3 sets of people here for the week, all of whom like to get together (and drink) so it will be a busy time here.  I'm going to see my mother, of course, but I think part of the appeal of this trip is the escape from Hawkeye.  Staying with Liza is always relaxing, and I can feel that I'm doing something to improve the quality of her life.  We have very nice conversations and visits, I drive her everywhere she wants to go (this time she wants to go to the town beach, that's an easy one) and I like being there.  It's hard on my dogs because they have to stay in the pen at her house, no running free.  Sometimes Mark and I take them or early morning walks but that's harder to do in the summer because of the tourists.  No beach walks.  We can go to the wonderful park but they have to be on leashes there because they've turned into very BAD DOGS and wander.

So we'll have beach time, lobster time, we'll go to our favorite breakfast restaurant on the shore--for lunch this time.  I'll get some good coffee beans for Linda.  Liza will ask me 5 times if I want anything from her house and we'll make each other laugh.  Mark is on vacation and hopes to paint his apartment so I may help him with that.  or not.  Anyway, it will be a good trip.

This is what I look like when surround by cousins, cousins' children and cousins' grandchildren.  "Whaaaa?"  We had our family meeting and it all went well.  Very harmonius, no discord, some actual decisions made.  15 minutes of business and 45 minutes of conversation, not bad, not bad at all.  I had some nice visits with people, I was the only rep. from my family there but that turned out not to matter much as no major issues were brought up.  Whew.

That was last weekend.  The week before was full of social things, lots of dinner, coffee in the mornings with friends, dinners with friends, a doctor's appointment thrown in, helping a friend with a broken-down car, just "stuff" going on.  A busy time.

Just a view of the mountain on a day with nice clouds.  I've had some very nice dock time, just me and my dogs, and several nights of having camp to myself.  I sleep well in the boat house, especially when it's as hot as it's been.  Always cooler at the lake.  Tonight I'm home, once again camp is full of other people and a) I don't want to intrude, and b) I like to be alone in camp.  It's been very busy.

The dogs are just fine.  Right now they're outside breathing cooler air.  I was at Linda's tonight for Moroccan dinner, delicious, celebrating Joe's birthday.  For his REAL birthday we went on a cruise out of Burlington on Lake Champlain, which was way cool.  That was a lot of fun.  It was a hot day but we sat in the bow where there was a grand breeze.  I really enjoyed the day.  Since then it's been too hot to enjoy much.  Yesterday I spent the entire day at camp (I promised the dogs I'd spend the day with them), sitting on the dock for a while until the biting flies just were too much to bear, then I sat on the boat house porch and swam once in a while to cool off.  It was 96 in Plattsburgh, probably merely 90 here in Hawkeye.  Today felt worse, it was more humid.  I just felt that, if I did go swimming I would never be dry because of the humidity.  Anyway I got the boat house in pretty good shape, and emptied the camp fridge as I promised I would.  Tomorrow I go to the dump with at least 20 1-gallon water jugs from camp and a friend's recyclables, camp garbage, boat house garbage, my garbage.  Yikes.  First is coffee with friends and a field trip to a marvelous bakery in Keeseville.

Monday I'm going to RI for the week.  Mark is on vacation so we'll either paint his apartment or just go to the beach.  Anyway I'll see my mother and we'll enjoy being together.

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.

Cool, man, cool

And when it cools off here boy does it cool off.  t was 47 this morning, only got up to the 60's and it was windy and rainy with occasional sun.  Brrr.  Not complaining, I try hard not to complain about the weather.

I had a nice morning, coffee with Fred and Linda, then we went out for breakfast.  The food wasn't great but we had a good time.  It rained hard while we were out and about, rained less during the day after that.  I went to our favorite produce place, stopping in AuSable on the way.  I went to the cemetery and deadheaded the geraniums on graves.  The plants look surprisingly well considering the neglect that's been showered on them.

I actually dozed this afternoon, cuddled with a dog under a comforter on the couch.  Nice, very nice.  It was too cold and wet to do much outdoors so I settled for a non-productive day.  Oh, yes, that's a rare thing for me, right?

I was supposed to "help" train a puppy that some friends got from my breeder today but the session was cancelled because of the rain.  It was rescheduled for next week, when MY SISTER will be here.  I need help saying no to invitations: these friends invited us for dinner while Molly is here, I managed to say no to that, but instead we're having lunch with them.  So far we have commitments for Sunday lunch, Monday lunch and Tuesday dinner.  That doesn't cover everyone, not by a long shot.  I'll do my best to head off invitations but I'm notoriously bad at that.

I stayed in the boat house 2 nights, the first was Sunday, when it was hot oh so hot.  Linda and I went to the farmers market Sunday morning, which was great.  Didn't get much stuff but it was good to be there and I saw friends.

On Monday Linda and I had a grand dock day but it was very windy.  90 degrees but a cool wind so sitting in the sun was pleasant.  We swam a few times in very cold but refreshing water.  So cold that you don't ever get used to it, but it feels wonderful when the sun is hot.

Monday night we had an incredible storm with huge amounts of lightning.  The storm didn't hit us directly, it seemed to be on the other side of the mountain.  I watched and watched the lightning from the boat house porch, getting wet because the rain blew all the way across the porch.  A tree came down on OHR, by the hardtop and the Highway Dept. cleaned it up around 7 a.m. yesterday.

I've been visiting with friends and neighbors, getting into the summer swing.  Cocktails with Joe & Martha, dinners with Linda & Erdvilas, visiting with Pat & Jim.  Lots of couples in my life, not many singles.

Tomorrow may be lunch with Barb and some shopping in prep of Molly's arrival.  She flies in to Montreal Saturday afternoon so I'll see her then.  Looking forward to some quality sister time.

Hot and hot

We're having summer again.  It's been getting progressively warmer every day and today we're approaching TOO hot for me.  I've had nice times sitting on my deck and sitting on Linda's dock, but now it's time to head to the lake.  This afternoon I'll sit with Linda on her dock, tonight I'll sit on the boat house porch and maybe I'll even sleep there.  June nights this year are cool, temps in the 40's when I get up so I haven't been staying by the water.  That will change for the next few days, though.

It was a rough week for my mother--her sister Louise died on Wednesday.  She was 93 and had Alzheimer's, died rather suddenly.  She had been ailing for maybe 2 weeks and just slipped away.  I've been talking to my mother every day, she's progressing from feeling very sad to thinking of memories with her sister and family.  I remember my aunt fondly, she was a warm and happy person.  Her son, my cousin John, my mother and I are working on an obituary (my mother doesn't have email so John sends me things and I read them to my mother; additionally John will call me with messages and information for my mother, he finds it harder to talk to my mother because it's a very emotional thing for both of them).  Tomorrow I'll call my mother again and we'll go over our editing of the text John sent me today.  The funeral will be in Lexington, Mass. the second weekend in July, when my sister and I will be in Rhode Island.  That will be good, we can take my mother and probably Mark will go as well.  My mother's delivering a eulogy, she was pleased, I think to have been asked.

What else is going on with me?  Busy social activities.  Dinners, lunches, yoga.  I cooked delicious lobsters, clams and mussels for friends.  Man can those people eat a lot of shellfish!  I thought there would be leftover clams but I was wrong.  Which was good I think.  I cleaned the house gradually so there was no great flurry of activity on the day of the dinner.  What a grand thing!  I'm still getting used to having so much free time, am used to cleaning for a few hours at a time to get everything ready the day of a dinner. 

This afternoon I'm going to Linda's, to sit on her dock and look across the lake with our binoculars.  There aren't too many people on the lake yet but there are a few boats and jet skis on weekends.  Ugh, we much prefer the silence of weekdays.  Hard to believe the 4th of July is 2 weeks away.

My sister comes in a week.  I've done a little to get the boat house ready, will spend more time there this week cleaning and setting up.  Water in camp is a problem (or non-existent) and the boat house dock has not been put in.  Molly and I can't do that so we'll either use the camp dock or just get in the water from shore, over the rocks.  Not a huge deal but boy it is nice to have a dock.

My niece Jenica is going to CUBA!   She's going with a library contingent to set up a program, will be there for a week.  That is so exciting, and I'm so proud of her.  What a great thing. 

My friends are well.  I am well.  My dog is old but well.  My other dog is ripping apart the cushion on the couch whenever I leave her alone at home.  ratpig.  I have all of my wood for the winter delivered and paid for but not stacked.  That comes later.  Getting it is step 1, paying for it step 2, stacking happens when other people do it.

The coming week looks quiet (so far).  How great is that?

How long has it been?

I had made a promise to myself that I would write for this blog at least twice a week.  I also made a promise to myself that I would do 3 things every day.  So how's that working out? 

I've been busy, mostly with a social life.  I keep a wall calendar and write salient appointments, lunches, events on it.  The first half of June looks pretty full.  Lots of lunches with Julie (one a week), yoga every Tuesday night with Julie, lunch with Barb, dinner with Linda, dinner with Anne, dinner with J&M.  So mostly it seems to be about food, in my life.

I did take the dogs to the vet for their annual visits.  My nice, homespun, local vet sold his practice to a big corporate-style practice so it's not what it used to be.  The office I've been going to or 30 years is in Westport, the vet I've seen is not often there, and prices have risen dramatically.  I've been thinking of switching to another vet but it's so hard to sever ties.  Anyway, I took both dogs and they passed with flying colors.  Tess was miserable, wouldn't sit still, struggled and squirmed and finally fell off the exam table.  Treasure was a perfect patient.  I asked the vet which dog she thought I had trained, and which I got as an adult, already-trained dog.  Huh.  She doesn't know me terribly well but sure could guess that Treasure was NOT a product of the ESRogers Training Program.  It was all fine, they got their shots, had blood tests, I got meds to bring home, all for $500.  I guess I should be putting away $50 a week for next year's visit.  Both dogs weigh a mere 53 pounds, which is great.  Tess lost 5 pounds during the year so she gets even more treats and biscuits now that she's 13.

My yoga skills aren't really improving, I only go once a week.  Some of the positions are not difficult for me but some are uncomfortable and unpleasant because my huge gut gets in the way.  There are a couple of positions where we're all pretzeled and bent over and I can barely breathe.  The teacher is very nice and doesn't make me feel like an inflated beach ball, and Julie and I are always right in front of her.  Yoga is like other classes, in which people always want to be in the same spot week after week.  We're the most recent joinees so planted ourselves in the front.  Brave of us, no?

The weather has been extremely crappy.  Temps in low 40's in the morning, lots of cold wind and plenty of clouds.  Some rain, which was nice for my plants.  I did get nearly all of my container planting done, I just have a few more plants to find a place for.  I planted nasturtium and cucumber seeds, as well as moonflowers and morning glories.  They've all come up but there's one pot that I thought I planted nasties in but there's no sign of life so maybe I forgot to put any seeds in the dirt.  I'll give it a little more time but it sure looks stoopid.

I have some transplanting to do--I brought back some evening primroses from RI, must plant them, and I have to dig up the giant globe thistle plant that's crowding and blocking the snakeweed plant that I really like.  Last year I dug up the thistle and moved it but that only encouraged the remaining growth and now it's huge.

We had a really nice Belmont party but none of us picked the race winner.  The food was delicious, Linda made a great new Belmont cocktail, and it was a good evening.  I did think Exaggerator was going to win but I was wrong wrong wrong.

Book group met at Linda's and we spent (what for us was) a good amount of time discussing the unremarkable book.  We'll meet again at the end of July so we're reading 2 books this month, very unusual for us.  The books are The boys in the boat and Little women.  I've not read Little women and a looking forward to that.  I'll re-read the boys book, I wasn't as enthusiastic about it as pretty much everyone in the whole world was when I first read it.  What I'm reading now is the new Richard Russo book, Everybody's fool, which is a wonderful, wonderful book.  My only complaint is that it's long, very long, but things are moving right along.  Rich characters (most of whom we've already met) with fantastic plot twists.  Oh I love this book.

I went to an author luncheon last week, a local author who's a friend and former library director.  I bought the book Adirondack outlaws, to give to Joe because I thought he'd enjoy it.  While I was visiting Linda for a matter of minutes, mere minutes, Treasure ate the first 28 pages of the book.  I debated whether it was an appropriate gift, but decided to give it to Joe anyway.  Honestly, I'd had the book in the car for less than an hour before Treasure grabbed it.  What a ratpig.

I got to use my new cordless reciprocating saw yesterday, which was sooooo much fun.  I cut up a piece of plywood, putting one piece under the cushion of a Mission style chair and putting another piece under the broken couch that I've sworn to replace just as soon as, well, as soon as I can.  I threw out the dogs' favorite chair and replaced it with the Mission chair and they are not, so much not happy.  They approach the chair, look at it, look at me, then cross the room and get on the couch.  Oh the poor dears.

My sister comes in less than 2 weeks!  She's flying to Montreal on the 25th so I'll pick her up there and we'll spend 4 or 5 days here before heading to a cousin's house in the Finger Lakes, then on to RI for 10 days before returning here for a couple of days.  How will it be to be with my sister for 3 weeks?  Fine, fine and wonderful.  We each know that we need alone time, so there will be plenty of that mixed with good visiting.  I have some work to do in the boat house before she comes but it's just too cold to want to get to that.  Supposed to warm to the 80's late this week so maybe I'll really get that taken care of.  I need sunshine before I can get much outdoor work or boat house work done.  That's just how I am.

Where did it go?

I don't know where the week went.  Day by day I got things done, saw people, had fun.  The weekend was busy, the Holts were here, there was a dinner at J&M's, and I did a lot of planting.  I have almost all of my flowers planted in containers on the deck, with still some cosmos and cleome to plant in the ground and enough flowers for one more container.  I bought more dirt--I've used more dirt this year than ever before, having a great time mixing it with cow manure in the wheelbarrow and filling the pots.

Coffee in the mornings with Linda and Fred, sometimes just Linda on her lakeside porch, sometimes at Fred's on his porch.  It was very hot, unpleasant for me and hard for me to be very productive.  It's cooled off a bit now but today is a big muggy and in the 70's.  We had a big rain storm on Sunday afternoon, complete with hail.  It poured and poured--so much that my sump pump got in on the action.

Tuesday I went to Plattsburgh, ran a few errands and had lunch with Julie.  That night we went to yoga class together.  Stretched muscles I don't usually stretch so I was a bit sore yesterday but am fine today.  I've been cleaning my house in prep. of dinner for Linda and Erdvilas--the original plan was to cook them a lobster dinner tomorrow night, but I've postponed that until next week.  Meanwhile I cleaned the living room and even vacuumed the rug.  Yikes. 

Yesterday I finally went to the cemetery to plant flowers on the dead people.  I had a ton of geraniums, plus some portulaca and lobelia for my father and brother.  The plot has no shade so there's not much I can plant there, every year it's geraniums.  Maybe this year I'll actually go to the cemetery during the summer and deadhead the plants.  maybe.

Today was a banner day, my friend showed up with his dump truck and we had a grand time filling it.  Boy did we fill it.  I had taken some things out of the mud room, and we cleared all the crud off of the deck (broken table, falling-apart planting table, broken this and broken that), plus we threw out the pieces of foamboard that were scattered around the side of the house.  I had him take away the huge chair in the living room, much to the dogs' dismay.  It was their favorite spot.  Too bad, I was so tired of that chair and it was falling apart.

Tomorrow is another Plattsburgh day, lunch with Barb and a few errands.  I hope to finish planting everything in the morning.  Hope to.  May.  Perhaps.  Stranger things have happened.  We had good rain this afternoon that watered everything so that was nice.  I think tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and not obnoxiously hot.

Saturday I'll probably get together with Julie, although there's a big bikefest that will close lots of the roads between her house and mine.  We'll see what we can do.

Apparently the docks and water were put in in camp on Monday.  I haven't been down there since I opened the boat house last week.  It wasn't the usual cousins who put in the docks so it will be interesting to see how it was done.  I guess I'm responsible for opening main camp and don't plan to do that until the end of the month, when my sister will be here to help me.  Sometimes people show up in June to use camp, but it won't be ready for them so SOMEONE ELSE will have to do it.  That would be grand.

I had the nicest morning today, just a pleasant time when I said I LOVE THIS LIFE.

Successful trip but I missed Adk spring

I had a good trip to Rhode Island, good visiting with my mother and with Mark, celebrating Mark's birthday, eating lobsters, buying flowers, reading and resting (resting? resting from what?).  The weather was good and they were about as far along in spring (leaf-wise) as were were here in Hawkeye when I left home.  BUT...when I got home on Monday there were green leaves all over the place here.  Rats!  We had a 5-day spring and I missed it.  Well, it's still spring here, it's just that I missed the big drama of it.  Now the woods are pretty much obscene green but the leaves aren't quite big enough to be noisy so it's still a quiet place.

People have arrived for the season--Joe & Martha came while I was away and are well settled in now.  Linda arrived Monday and I spent Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and part of today with her.  We totally enjoy being together and have fun.  Yesterday we went to Plattsburgh, got plants at Pray's--I bought 8 geraniums, ostensibly for the cemetery, but most of them went into a pot on my deck this morning.  I'll get more tomorrow when I go into town for lunch & errands.  Today Linda and I went to Asgaard to see the goats and buy some meat (not goat meat, I just bought pork).  Tonight I'm home alone (with the dogs) and have a couple of phone calls to make.  I planted many, many flowers this morning, all in containers for the deck.  So very satisfying.  I have more to plant but ran out of dirt so I'll get more of that tomorrow, too.  I have to plant seeds: cucumbers, morning glories, nasturtiums and moonflowers.  Get those seeds in the ground!

I haven't been to camp yet, every day this week I've thought I would get to the boat house to open it up, but other things came up.  Tomorrow I'm hoping to get myself down there, it's supposed to be hotter tomorrow than the 84 it was today, so maybe when I get back from town I'll do that, then sit on the porch and enjoy a lake breeze.  We need rain, it's been hot and dry for the last week, didn't rain at all while I was away.

I went to yoga class with Julie on Tuesday night.  There as a big crowd--15 women, and it was fine.  Do I really like yoga?  Maybe not so much but it's sure good for me to do SOMETHING.  I walked to the neighbors' house this morning to drop off something, retrieving Tess on the way.  The planting I did took lots of moving around and hauling dirt and pots, so that was good.  The black flies haven't been bad--if/when it rains that will change.  I know there will be flies, we couldn't have a June without them.  They were out before I went to Liza's, but where have they gone now?

My mother doing what she likes to do in Rhode Island (and one of reasons she moved there from land-locked northern Illinois): looking at the water.  This is near our seafood haven (Champlin's), watching boats leaving the docks, watching the Block Island ferry come and go, watching gulls and cormorants (ugh) and just enjoying the view.  We went to her best ocean-spotting place, near the town beach.  It was a windy day and the surf was big (by RI standards) so there were more than 25 surfers there.  Mostly the surfers seemed to be sitting on their boards, waiting for the perfect wave.  Apparently there weren't many perfect waves, they all sat there a long time.

Dinner set for the Violet Dinner.  Every year Liza and Mark celebrate the blooming of the violets by setting the table with some of the zillions of violet-themed dishes they've accumulated over the years.  They stopped trying to find purple food to serve, we just had steak for Mark's birthday.

Dogs doing what dogs do at my mother's house.  They get pretty bored there--their freedom is limited to a small pen and they get tired of sniffing the violets and lilies of the valley there.  Tess was a BAD DOG one day and wandered off into the woods, ending up in the middle of the road.  She was rescued by a nice young woman who knew enough to read both sides of Tess' ID tag, so she could call my mother's house to report the wayward pup's location.  Whew!  That was a big deal and both Liza and I were hysterical.

My mother's back yard and the back of her house.  There's a lot in bloom--2 dogwood trees, azaleas, rhododendrons, lots of ground flowers in bloom, and there were leaves on some of the trees.