This was the summer that I
– went fishing with Bob;
– saw Tiger Woods win the Deutsche Bank championship at TPC;
– attended the Woods Hole Film Festival with CC, saw Chubby Checker at the County Fair, Entrain at Heritage Plantation, music services at the churches of two friends, the Cape Cod Cat Show, the Mashpee Commons Seaside LeMans, an open house at Emme’s camp and BJ’s annual lecture in Wellfleet…
– bought a croquet set;
– watched fireworks, several times, including twice from the neighborhood, and got clued in to the best venues for other local displays;
– landed a full-time job only 20 minutes from the Noble House of BlahBlahBlah (Inner Keep);
– did my yearly Labor Day volunteer stint at the Fairgrounds;
– got some long-overdue tree work completed, spread five yards of mulch, got rid of about 15 yards of Cat Briar and replanted the rock garden at Castle Ravayne;
– tended my moved-to-Houston neighbors’ flower boxes;
– caught a mouse in the basement and fought off hornets at Goodwill Park;
– recovered from three disasters at Inner Keep involving water: a spill on my ancient iBook, a toilet overflow and, once, a washing machine tub that wouldn’t drain;
– hauled lots of stuff to the recycling center and the transfer station, including a truckload of brush from Ravayne and a box spring which had been replaced by the gift of an almost new one from CE; and
– spent a weekend in Martha’s Vineyard, including a visit to Chappaquiddick Island.
And, oh yes, got into Quest with Bob and Emme.
Minor regrets, I missed three staples: the Onset Blues Festival, the Falmouth Road Race and the Jazz Festival at the Wequassett Inn; you might say, I ran out of steam.
The kids stayed over several times, sometimes alone, sometimes in tandem. I finished a long-term contract at a company in Plymouth and collaborated with a talented local designer on a new website for one of my old customers.
In short, this was an unusually busy, active summer. The job market was hotter than a pistol for .NET developers. I found a bunch of new colleagues and hope some of them stick around.
This Fall, assuming sufficient enrollment, I’m starting group golf lessons, having been cautioned by Peter not to hold out too much hope for any inherited athletic talent.
We’d like to get at least one major home improvement done at Ravayne, and to plant more tulips in the rock garden. The Wellfleet Conference takes place next weekend, and the Harvest Fair, the following. Then comes Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, not to mention one of the most intense political seasons of recent years.
Fun times ahead and meanwhile, today, which was supposed to be a wash-out, is a gift.