This year, the arrival of August and the approach of the end
of summer have taken me by surprise. I have so many things I thought I would
get done this summer, and of course it looks like I won’t get to half of them.
First the things I did do. For the first time in years, my
family had a gathering that did not revolve around a
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| Stunning views from the hotel in Rancho Mirage. |
We stayed in a lovely resort in Rancho Mirage. It was
definitely up-scale, with wonderful facilities and comfortable rooms with
stunning desert views. Maybe a little too up-scale for the likes of us; the
valet parkers (there was no alternative to valet parking) managed to lose my
daughter Laura’s “rolling wreck,” the old Honda she’s hoping to make last until
she finishes her college education. We figured they had probably hidden it out
of sight. They did find it eventually.
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| Old Hondas are out of place at trendy resorts |
At least I had flown, rather than driving my 20-year-old
pickup truck.
In July, my husband’s family had a reunion in Ocean City,
NJ. When they were kids in Philadelphia, their father got a week’s vacation
every year and they made an annual trek to Ocean City. Steve says he’d do odd
jobs, etc, all year, and then blow his entire savings on the boardwalk in a
week. Now, the four kids get together every few years and bring 91-year-old
Grandma back to Ocean City with the whole family. She now lives in Cheyenne,
WY, so it’s quite a journey for her.
Those were the major events for this relatively quiet
summer. The spring daffodils were magnificent, and I’d started out with great
plans to get the gardens back in shape and keep the yard cut. It’s not a
suburban lawn—we live on seven rural acres, much of it wooded—but I like to
keep it cut enough so we can use some of the property. I even bought a new
mower this season.
Somehow much of it got away from me. The deer ate the
daylilies and hosta in the back, but for some
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| Nothing says summer like the beach. |
Surely I can catch up when the weather gets cooler and I can
get out the brush cutter to cut everything down to size. Which needs to be
fixed—when am I going to get the help I need to load it on the pickup truck to
drive down to my friend who will fix it?) And be ready for next spring.
On the adventure side, this was the year I was going to go
visit people in the Midwest. Probably in my 20-year-old pickup truck. But I
haven’t made it. And while I was busy not making plans most of the people I’d
wanted to go see made their own plans and would not be home.
We are going to visit Mackinac Island in September, and
stay in the Grand Hotel. That’s a bit up-scale for us, too, but since cars
aren’t allowed on the island, they can’t lose one that doesn’t meet their
standards.
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| Family at the shore. |
There’s always the New England trip to visit relatives in
Cape Cod and friends in Boston. But somehow that hasn’t materialized, either.
I’ve kept up with my writing, although of course not as much
as I would have liked. I’m working on an experimental middle grade mystery, but
I don’t know if I’m cut out to write for that age. And I’ve begun to outline my
next Jesse Damon crime novel. One of my short stories is in the edit stage for
a Guppy anthology, and I’ve just had one accepted for my SINC chapter’s
Chesapeake Crimes: Fur, Feathers and Felonies. I have one or two more floating
around out there (I should keep better records!) that I haven’t heard about
yet.
How’s your summer going? Have you managed to accomplish most
of what you wanted to?
Sounds like a wonderful summer, Kathleen! What great pictures. The Rancho Mirage thing made me laugh. For years I drove a battered, but very serviceable, old Toyota, same thing used to happen to me!
ReplyDeleteHappy travels to you! Great photos. Congratulations on your acceptances and publications.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Kathleen--not sure how this summer has sped by. But good things to look back on in our case too, and glad you had some travels and adventures (and kept the critters out of the front yard). And congrats on the writing news! So looking forward to the new Gups and Chesapeake Crimes anthologies, and wishing you luck on the next novel too. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like summer was a fun and productive season. Who knows what fall will bring?
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great time and how wonderful that you got your family together. We've tried for ages, but there's always a cousin or two missing.
ReplyDeleteYou've still gotten an impressive amount of writing done. Kudos on your acceptances and keep going with that novel.
Sounds like you had a terrific summer with lots of family get-togethers. That's something we never quite seem to manage. Part of one family together here, part of another family here, individual family members often, but we never quite pull off bringing together a huge family that's scattered all over the country and on other continents, as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd keeping up with your writing during all that was really impressive. Now, it's back to the grindstone. ;-)
Kait, I parked my old pickup truck in near a friend's house in a fancy development, and she laughed and said the neighbors might complain. It's over 20 years old, and would have hit the junk yard a while ago if I didn't have a good buddy who maintains it for me. We're partners in owning a street stock race car, and he has all the equipment and tools to handle that, so the old truck is no problem. Just takes time.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, thanks. I can't take credit for those pictures. Some people (like you--I've seen some of yours, especially the flowers) have an eye and a talent, but folks like me need to find people who are willing to share.
ReplyDeleteArt, I appreciate the encouraging words! My general goal is two novels and twelve short stories a year. Although of course many of them don't see completion and quietly join the "What in heaven's name were you thinking there?" folder in my computer.
ReplyDeleteWarren, I'm looking forward the fall. It's my favorite time of year.
ReplyDeleteShari, I'm amazed that we got so much of both families together. My husband's family manages it every few years, but my family doesn't. I'm grateful to the brother who arranged the get-together around his daughter's graduation.
ReplyDeleteLinda, the grindstone rules! Thank goodness for laptop computers.
ReplyDeleteYour car story made me laugh. I loved my 20-year-old Plymouth van and was sorry to see her go. It was driving a good but old car that enabled me to do other things with my money. The Plymouth lives on with my niece.
ReplyDeleteI had an old Plymouth once, Grace. In fact, it was my first car. Would you believe the driveshaft broke on it? (It's probably the only time one of those "drive train warranties" would ever have actually been useful.) The car was pretty old, by then, though, and the mechanic said all he could think of was that it had to be a casting defect, but certainly wasn't worth fixing.
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