Things to be jealous about

Here is the mussel dinner.

I told M about it and she was quite jealous, being in Ohio where there are no mussels at all. She says she’s been eating pizza type things. But, perhaps as recompense, she got into all the classes she needed, including painting. So that is great news indeed.

News from my mother — the furnace pump blew out in the hurricane, and the spray killed the grass and the flowers and the holly leaves, but other than a few screen doors that went flying, there’s really no damage. The house really howls in high winds — I am quite jealous that I wasn’t there. But in recompense I am here, and so is N with two friends, and it’s been great to see them. They’ve been off exploring (a coastal adventure! an urban adventure! I’ve been reading the Swallows and Amazons books, and perhaps that has colored how I’ve seen what they’ve been up to), with a lot of eating, which one can do quite well around here.

And there you have it. Now I’m going to get my haircut. You can all be jealous about that, but I really need it — it’s been a year since it was last cut. Really. It’s not pretty.

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Back at work

So. Back at work, which looks nothing like this picture, by the way. The furniture is in and the students are back.

All this coming and going is a little disorienting. It’s also disorienting to have N around and M back at school. Nice, though. N and her friend from school drove out to the beach on Saturday and brought back oysters, which were mostly consumed, and mussels, which they cooked for dinner last night. Hard to complain about that!

Anyway. Now we’re home for a while.

Ho hum ho hum.

Home again

So — we’re home again, having flown to Pittsburgh, driven to Ohio, driven back to Pittsburgh and then flown home, all in the space of 4 days.

N stayed home, and friends flew in from the east to hang out with her — she’s off at the moment with one of them to go see the elk and the Pacific.

M is settled. She has a really nice room this year, and her classes seem good, assuming she can get the one she really really needs.

We saw K’s cousin A, who’s a graduate student at a nearby college. (He helped M compose an email to get into the class she really really needs, and then helped interpret the professor’s response.) We saw Jeanne and her family (now 3, rather than 4). We saw K’s brother’s family. K’s brother lives in a house on the edge of a park with a lovely living room with windows all around and lots of things to read — quite pleasant. K’s mother has settled in to her new arrangement — it’s a tiny apartment in an assisted living place. Parts of it she views as an affront– that they call her to ask why she didn’t come to lunch, that they supervise her medicines — but other parts are good — mainly that they feed her three times a day, I think.

Anyway, I’m home, now.

It’s odd. I’ve been so busy and now, with K at work, and N off at the beach, I’m at loose ends. There’s a boat I want to look at, but I have no car.

There’s plenty to do around here, of course.

It’s odd to be quiet.

hmm.

So

Madness has broken out. Strangely, life with four people is more complicated than life with two, or even three.

In any case, 3 of us are about to depart for points east.

There’s not a lot of sleep involved, but things are definitely more exciting.

(By the way, Jim spent the night outside, which is unprecedented. He is an elderly cat!)

back

They’re back!

It all worked according to plan.

I’m exhausted.

What’s new

Not those sea anenomes, which M and I saw at the museum before we took off for distant parts over a month ago .

Today I am keeping a close eye on the world clock. It is now 10:00 pm in the part of the world where N and M are. I told my colleague E how much energy I was expending hoping quietly that they will have figured out a way to get from where they are (quite remote) to where they need to be (a big city, quite far away). Yes, she said, and that’s nothing compared to the amount of energy you’re going to need to keep that plane in the air. And since there are two planes, it’s going to be double.

Anyway, with any luck by this time tomorrow one of them will be nearly home and the other will be twiddling her thumbs at the airport, but at least on this continent.

I can’t wait to see them.

Slow going

It seems that the rhythm at my job picks up about now. School is about to start. People are still vacationing and taking kids to school, but I think the fact that school is about to start means that even if you are vacationing, you are doing it despite what’s going on at work.

But the rhythm of the world in general is at cross purposes. It’s August. Sure fall is coming, but it’s still August, and especially here, where it’s now finally warming up. The time is right for some excellent recreation followed by reading on the couch and eating outside with pie and ice cream for dessert.

Not for the compiling of statistics and thoughts of the year ahead.

No, no, no.