Summer has zipped right along. Claire has finished swimming lessons for the summer and I'm quite sad because I've grown very fond of spending every afternoon from 4 to 4:30 sitting on a bench in a steamy indoor pool room watching her splash and flip around with three other four-year-old girls. It brings back good memories from my own swimming days. And her swim instructor, Sam, who just stepped down off Mt. Olympus for the summer to teach Pike-level swim lessons at the YMCA, is a great instructor. Very patient.
Bob leaves Tuesday for Indianapolis, and Claire and I have several fun things planned while he's gone, including watching Pippi_Longstocking and going to Color Me Mine and baking Sour Cream Apple Pie. And I'm going to paint the dining room chairs bright red.
Today was my sister-in-law's birthday and we drove down to Shelter Island (San Diego) to have a picnic of barbecued ribs and pulled chicken and sweet potato fries and potato salad and green salad and wine and cake and cheese and fruit. It was yummy, and the weather was a perfect sunny and breezy (San Diego is always, as far as I can tell, sunny and breezy), and it's always nice to look at the water, which makes me feel peaceful and satisfied, especially with a stomach full of barbecue, but we did seven hours of driving today. Bob noted that we could have gone to the Grand Canyon.
I got bit by a spider one week ago while I was out gardening, and my arm is finally feeling better. I've been doped up on Bendryl and Advil all week, and have managed to stay awake only through sheer willpower. Okay, Starbucks and Diet Cherry Coke, actually. Which explains why I'm still awake now despite seven hours of driving and a day of sun and wind.
My sister and her family got back from camping all right, and are now out in New York visiting her in-laws. I have missed her, and Claire has missed her cousins, and they have missed us, but we all love the carefree vacation-y feeling of summer, enhanced if you're actually on vacation, which my sister is. I could have flown to New York today, in the seven hours we spent driving.
Marlene, also back from camping, emailed this: "Thought of you many times this trip when we had NUMEROUS encounters with bears. Will tell more soon, we are still getting settled." I want to know about those bear encounters, since you are back safely to tell about those bear encounters. I would not want to know about those bear encounters if you weren't.