Sunday and Monday in Maine

After a brief stop at the Shaw's in Wyndham to pick up lobster rolls for lunch, we mosied west on Route 302, finally arriving at the cabin mid-afternoon. We unloaded, claimed beds and bedrooms, opened shutters and sat down to yummy Maine lobster rolls.

After lunch, a quick trip down to the water was in order. Unloaded the kayaks from the boat house and readied them for our first trip. Then back up the hill to the cabin.

Got together a shopping list and then headed into Bridgton for groceries. First, made a quick stop at The Corn Shop Trading Company. Just needed to boost the economy a little bit. It's one of my favorite shops in Bridgton with very friendly owners and an adorable, friendly dog. One of the best places for souvenirs and gifts in town. Marilin and Kathy picked up some goodies for friends back home.

On to Hannafords for food for a couple of days. We each had a night to cook for everyone. First rule: easy meals and as much lobster as possible. Les kicked off the cooking with some chicken tortilla soup. Perfect for a drizzly cool June evening in the north woods. Followed dinner with a game of manipulation rummy despite Marilin and Kathy's protests. They claim not to be gamers, but if you're in Maine at the Williams cabin, a game or two in the evening is required!

Monday morning greeted us with a little rain. We got the old percolater coffee maker revved up and heated water for tea and plotted our day.

Marilin in the kitchen Kathy on the porch

After breakfast we took a quick trip over to North Conway, New Hampshire to check out the LLBean outlet store and Settler's Green, a whole whopping bunch of outlet shops. Also took the laptop so we could check email. Settler's Green has free wifi and we took advantage of that.

Finished up by late afternoon and drove through Fryeburg in time for Les to do a Weight Watcher's weigh in. Down 2.8lbs for the week. Whoo Hoo! I can maybe have a little butter with my lobster!!

Home and Kathy's night for chicken stir fry. Followed by wine for the wine drinkers and chatting....lots and lots of chatting.

UVA Women Year 8

Way back in 2002 some of my college roommates and I decided to start getting together for an annual reunion. We did the first two in Richmond, which is a somewhat central location. While that was satisfactory, we decided that in order to make it easier on some of our group we would have each person host the group in ensuing years. That meant the host didn't have to travel and since we have no expectations of a clean house there really wasn't much prep work involved. We normally do a long weekend, but this year was different. I talked my dear mother-in-law into letting us use her family cabin in the Maine woods for a week. Here is Reunion 2009:

On Friday, Marilin drove to my house from her friend Jane's farm. I finished packing and we went to Maureen's in McLean for an overnight and to get packed up.

Maureen's husband Terry got some last minute instructions in doggie care (Maureen and Terry have three adorable small dogs) and with the car parked to the gills we took off on Saturday morning for parts north.

From McLean we headed for East Hampton, Mass, home of my Uncle-in-law, Adison Cate. Ad is the widower of my mother-in-law's only sister, Jean, who passed away 2 summers ago. Ad lives in a very nice home in a retirement community that he helped develop in East Hampton. We arrived after a leisurely 9 1/2 hour drive at the reasonable hour of about 6 p.m. This is quite a switch from the trip my husband and I normally make from our home to Maine in a single, marathon drive...leaving in the wee hours of the morning and arriving at dusk with a numb backside and still reeling from the road.

At Ad's house we met his new friend, Cynthia. I was delighted to meet this fine woman who apparently is his new girlfriend. Now, I wonder when Cosmo and GQ are going to get on board with the "dating in your 80's" articles? Anyhow, Ad and Cynthia look to be a fine match with mutual interests and a comfortable manner. They both live in the same retirement area and each knew the other's spouses (now both deceased) and both Ad and Cynthia were in the same group for spouses of terminal patients, so have that in common as well.

We left quickly for a wonderful dinner at the Apollo Restaurant which is in an old warehouse near downtown East Hampton. This year East Hampton is hosting the Bear Festival and have a number of adorable painted bears situated all over the city. Much like the bulls in Chicago, the big apples in the Big Apple, and the Mermaids on Parade in my hometown of Norfolk, the bears were painted by local artists and are on display until being auctioned off. http://easthamptonbearfest.com/photos/ Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the bears on display, but you can follow the link for more info.

The next morning, Father's Day, we met Adison's son, David, at Sylvester's in North Hampton for a nice brunch. http://www.sylvestersrestaurant.com/sylvesters.html Sylvester's is the home of a former minister and proponent of vegetarian diet from the 19th century, Sylvester Graham. Also father of the graham cracker he was apparently a nutritionist ahead of his time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_Graham

Adison and David Cate at Sylvester's.

Marilin, Adison, Cynthia and Maureen on the streets of North Hampton.

We left North Hampton about 10 to drive into Boston to pick up another roommate, Kathy, who was visiting sons Carter and Brian who live in the city. After a successful rendezvous we were off to the Maine woods.

Independence Greetings

Awoke to beautiful blue skies. Am enjoying a little Breakfast at Wimbledon watching the Williams sisters do what they do best. Plotting a trip on a local lake with the kayak later after my sweet baboo returns from morning rounds. Rain is supposed to hold off until after midnight, so it's a day in the sun, on the lake, and in the garden.

Plucked four nice yellow squash off the vines yesterday. Cukes, peppers and tomatoes still too small and need just a bit more incubation time. Also still need to deer-proof the tomatoes. Yeah, I know they're pretty and you all saw Bambi and all that, but if they don't leave my 'maters alone I'm going Rambo on their cute little asses. Now THAT will be some fireworks.

Happy Independence Day

Happy 4th of July folks. May your day be filled with good friends and good food and a safe fireworks viewing.

Flogging...

O.K. so I was on vacation when Michael Jackson bit the dust, so I missed most of the initial media frenzy. His passing was sad, but he had turned into a strange, sad man. True, he was a great pop singer, but come on people. The man is dead. Let his tortured soul rest. This flogging a dead horse ain't gonna bring him back again. Leave it alone folks. 'Nuff's enough.

Tally Ho

While walking the dog by The Park at the north grounds I spotted a critter off in the distance. It looked dog-like from afar, so I looked around to see if there was an owner about. Didn't see any people. Took another look since the critter was in a spot where I normallly don't see any critters. Just about then it popped up, turned tail and slunk off into the woods. Lo and behold it was a fox. I decided I'd leave the woods and the woodland trail to the wildlife today and just took the dog for a stroll around the track. It seemed like a good day to play it safe.

Mom's

My sweet babboo took off for his amazing cross country journey early Saturday morning so I availed myself of the opportunity to zip down to the old homestead to visit my mom. I must say I am pleasantly surprised.


Mom has been more or less confined to the first floor of her 3 story house since she fell in April, injuring a shoulder. She relies heavily on her upper body strength to get her up and down stairs to her second floor bedroom and (full) bathroom. So, with an injured arm she has been unable to manage the steps.

We did intervene last month and convinced her to put in a chair lift that would take her most of the way up the front stairs. The problem with the chair lift is that it is elevated higher at the bottom of the stairs than at the top of the stairs. Since she has really lousy knees she needs the extra height to get out of a seated position and to get upright. She doesn't have what she needs to push herself up out of the seat or to pull herself out of the seat. Thus she can go from the first floor to the landing and LOOK at the second floor she just can't get out of the chair to get there. She has ordered what I call an ejector seat that she can put in the lift chair to help her get out of it. I hope it comes soon. She said she ordered it a week to ten days ago, so I would expect it at any time. The ejector part raises slowly in the way that her lift chair does and should give her the "push" to be able to get off at the landing. I wonder whether or not we should put a railing on the top part of the stairs for her to hold onto to help stabilize herself.

So, stuck on the first floor, mom is actually moving around more. She has her "nest" in the living room. Her lift chair is surrounded by her various and sundry objects, mainly books, because that's where she's sleeping these days. She has rather enjoyed being in the living room more and was commenting about all the objects and artwork in there. She has pottery from my sister's pottery shop, art prints from my other sister and the odd objet d'art from me (talentless me), and my brothers to remind her of her children. Most of the art in the room was done by artists she knows. There is a picture of our dad, painted by a former co-worker of his and friend, that hangs on one wall, so they chat from time-to-time. I think it's been a good change of scenery for her. She also mentioned she's weaning herself off of television. Given the selection of what's on most channels, that's probably a good thing. I should do the same myself. Oh, if I could only wean myself off of my favorite reality shows. Sigh. Gimme some Amazing Race and Survivor and I'm a happy camper (so to speak).

Mom has removed the chair at her table in the back room and now motors herself in there with her seated walker, then uses that to sit at the table. So, she's out and about in the house more. She has two twenty-something grandsons in the house to keep an eye out on her and she has lots of neighbors and friends who call and drop by.

Mom is also sleeping better. Because she moves into the living room in the late afternoon or early evening to rest in her lift chair and elevate her legs she ends up nodding off earlier so her schedule is better. She's going to bed earlier and getting up earlier in the morning. No more sleeping in until noon. Of course as a retired 80-almost-81-year-old she can (and does) do what she damned well pleases. But, it's nice to know I can try to call her before noon and get her awake and alert.

So, good visit overall. Mom also sounds better than she has for a while. Looks like she's lost some weight. Her breathing sounds good and I think her cardioversion has held, so her irrgular hearbeat doesn't seem to be an issue at the time being.

I also hit a good weekend weather wise. It was nice and cool yesterday and I plan to be gone before the day heats up too much today. Mom tells me my oldest brother and his bride will be in next weekend. I will probably be back in early fall to visit and maybe to dig up her daylillies that she wants split. This is not a good time, but fall is perfect.