Day 244: August ends

Day 243: Harry Potter

Harry Potter clears my mind before bedtime.   His selflessness and courage reminds me of the good in most of mankind.  It may be childish fiction, but I know there are people who wish to serve others without self-aggrandizement.  Then there's the RNC.   Americans have such short memories and little sense of history.  The Republican platform is terrifying, especially in their wish to control women's bodies and to deny the most fundamental human rights to millions of gays and lesbians.  And the lies!  All politics all the time is so upsetting that we can't sleep.  So I try to lose myself before bedtime in the joy of swimming in cool, clean water and the beauty of our flowers and the love of family and friends.

Day 242: Deer!

Signs of autumn are all around us.  The coolness of late August nights provides for great sleeping.  We were up early to run errands in Jamestown and have lunch with Rachel at Chautauqua and noticed that goldenrod is blooming in all the roads and ditches.  Thistle and milkweed have gone to seed and our moonflowers are producing huge seed pods.  Yesterday a snake visited us, but today a herd of deer ran through the yard with fawns whose spots are fading.   Molly dozed in the sun till she spotted one of the many squirrels gathering nuts and seeds and chased it up the oak tree.  

Day 241: Snake!

Rain yesterday cooled the pool to 72 degrees overnight, but by afternoon, the sun had warmed it to a comfortable 74!  The warmth was so inviting that a spotted snake decided to take a sun bath in the grass.
 Lots of yard work needed to be done and poor Steve was laid up by tooth extractions.  I got on my trusty mower that bumps and jostles me so much, my hat fell off and I clipped the Jenn Suhr sign.

We took a long walk this morning and checked out the progress of the science building.  It's great to see students back on campus biking, skateboarding, skating or walking to class.

Day 240: Glorious rain

I spent this rainy day editing my book and learning iMovie.  Several youtube sites offered helpful tutorials that got me started.  I have to make the Quest video this year and decided to make a movie of our trip to Alaska as a practice project.  After 3.5 hours, I had learned many of the techniques and  tricks involved and was able to produce a 7 minute account of our trip.  Unfortunately, my computer does not have enough memory to share it on facebook and it will take two hours to render the project.  It's time to add memory to my MacBook and tackle all the Quest footage.  In just a month we will begin recruiting for the 25th annual Quest!

Day 239: Quiet Again

After a delightful vacation, my sisters, nieces and nephews departed this morning and our house is quiet and empty again. It was a lot of happy chaos and a great opportunity to reconnect.  

It hasn't rained for over a week so the garden is struggling now after a very productive season.  I picked another twenty tomatoes, a couple of peppers and a handful of beans.  The eight tomato plants produced over 200 tomatoes this summer.  

Day 238: Reunion

It was a day of celebration, family reunited and three birthdays.  The last time we had a photo like this with cousins and aunts and uncles was twelve years ago today, the day of my mother's funeral.  More family members were present that day, including our sons, a former brother in law and a late uncle.  Six years ago we had everyone here for our 35th wedding anniversary, but we didn't get a group photo because it was raining.  Hopefully, it won't take another twelve years.  

Day 237: Sky High Family

Sky High Adventure! What a fantastic way to celebrate birthdays for Steve, Jason and Caitlin. I was so impressed with my sisters because they were real  troopers and tried the courses even though they had never done anything like this.  Nancy did the yellow (beginner) level, but Laurie joined us on the blue level.  The kids all loved it and moved swiftly through the courses.  Brad, Sarah and Jason even complete  the black diamond course.  The exertion and strain in the 80 degree heat was exhausting, but  riding the mountain coaster cooled us off.  Ellicottville has several delightful restaurants so we chose Balloons and had a terrific birthday lunch.

The whole crew

Brad and Sarah

Nancy on the zipline

Laurie and I are climbing a huge ladder while Steve and Kyler zip over to a new platform

Day 236: Scrabble time

My sister Laurie

After a long day of swimming, beach combing, eating corn on the cob and burgers, we enjoyed more family game time!  Scrabble and dominoes all in the same evening!

Day 235: Family arrives!

Ten of us sat around the dining room table tonight for the first time in a long time.  After a huge meal of spaghetti, meatballs, sausage, salad, watermelon and French bread, we broke out the dominoes.  Our family loves the game cause we can play and visit at the same time.  All evening we played and nibbled, joked and laughed, told stories and ate ice cream.  We couldn't find the trains, so we substituted cherry tomatoes.  Molly immediately attached herself to Brad who is known in the family as the cat whisperer.  Now she is curled up in Sarah's arms and they are both in seventh heaven.  I only wish our boys were here too to see their cousins.

Day 234: Happy 41st Anniversary to us!

We spent our 41st anniversary in our favorite place, our backyard.  Peaceful and serene, surrounded by flowers, listening to the birds, swimming, visiting quietly; it was a lovely day.  We feasted on homemade pizza filled with veggies from our garden and then went to see "Moonrise Kingdom," a delightfully quirky film.   Tomorrow, my sisters, nieces and nephews will arrive and stay for four days, so it will be exciting, busy and a bit chaotic.

Day 233: Sean

Sean came to say goodbye today.  He's leaving for college on Wednesday as are many of our beloved students.  Indispensable Sean, master lighting designer, photographer, student leader, stage hand, and friend will be missed so much.   It's not a great photo, but he is is great young man.  Steve has depended on Sean for assistance with stage craft since seventh grade and he'll be lost without him.

As teachers, it is an extraordinary responsibility and blessing to have students become part of our lives.  Some, like Sean, become lifelong friends.

Day 232: 90th birthday

We are still suffering from jet lag, but we made the trip to Tidioute to help celebrate my brother's mother--in-law's 90th birthday.   Most of his wife's family was gathered for the event and they were  surrounded with beautiful children and grandchildren.  Some are hers, some are his, but all are theirs.

Day 231: Home sweet home

After a long day of traveling we were so happy to return home around 1 am.  As we drive into town, the village always looks so welcoming.  Arriving home to our own bed and bathroom is the best.  Molly and Paddy were sleeping and seemed to have forgotten us since Cody took such good care of them.  Before going to bed, I picked tomatoes, made sandwiches, vacuumed, fed the cats, sorted mail, and showered.

Then today, we had to reclaim the yard, mowing, trimming and weeding.  Apparently, it rained a few times while we were gone, so the lawn and weeds grew like crazy.  Still, I managed to swim 3/4 of a mile, download 800 photos and edit a quarter, and write two blog entries.  Not a bad first day home.

Day 230: Pike's Market

With a few hours to spare before our flight, we explored the heart of the Seattle, Pike's Market.

Sculpture at the entry to Pike's Market

Pike's Market has become famous for their business model of having fun at work.  Workers shout out the customer's order and then throw it across the store like flying fish.  

Gigantic dahlias, brilliant sunflowers and lilies overflowed stalls throughout the flower market.

Strings of peppers in a produce shop

From the top of the Great Wheel, we could see the entire city and mountains across the bay.

Inside the Great Wheel

Sculpture outside of Seattle's Art Museum

Day 229: Ziplining in Victoria, British Columbia

Downtown Victoria, British Columbia

Legislative House

Back on board at sunset

Day 228: Lounging

Foggy mornings become gorgeous afternoons.

Day 227: Tracy Arm Fjord