Rainy Monday

We had beautiful weather up at the lake this past weekend, except for one afternoon when a rain shower passed by...... and when it did, my husband was out on his sailboat with our young friend C and her friend M. The shower didn't last too long, and there were no strong winds, but they did get rather wet while it lasted. Today, however, is a different weather-story: lots of rain and cloudy skies.

C and her parents came up to the lake cottage to spend the weekend with us, and C invited her friend M. C loves to show her friends her cabin up there next to our cottage, and it's fun for us to see her friends' reactions to the cabin's decor. C has sort of a dolphin-palm tree-parrot-seashell-beachy theme going on inside that cabin....... it looks like a party is about to happen at any given time. She takes a lot of pride in it, and she's careful to keep it neat and clean.... which was one of my rules when we asked her if she'd like to have the cabin instead of a room inside the house. I would bet that she keeps that little cabin neater than her own room in her parents' house.

With C's dad up at the lake this time, it was easy for my husband to raise the mast up on his sailboat, as well as get the sail hoisted. The sailboat was docked at our boathouse all weekend long, and they took it out every day. C's dad has a kayak, which is now stored up at the lake cottage, and that went into the water every day as well. We all had a great time..... a Mexican dinner in town one night, then cooking at home the following night. C's mom brought up foods for lunch, and we added that to what I had in the fridge. It all worked out-- breakfast, lunch and dinner for six people from Friday through Sunday. Plus laundry, with the wet bathing suits and beach towels. I've determined that four guests at one time is just enough. Any more than that, and I'd be too worried about the meals and the laundry. C and her family are like our own family anyway, so it's very easy to be relaxed when they visit. C had asked me if she could invite two friends up this time, but I told her that one friend at a time seemed to be the right number.

We went into town for a couple of hours one day, because C likes to look at the large consignment shop there. We've been looking for a comfy chair for her cabin-- one that she can curl up and read in, and we were also looking for a nightstand with two or three drawers in it, to use as a small dresser for her clothes. We didn't find a nightstand with enough drawer space, but I did find some really nice old leather trunks, and I asked C if one of those would do for her clothing storage. The shop had new trunks made of fancy rattan, and old trunks made of worn leather. C loved the old leather ones... she said they had more personality. She picked out one that wasn't too big or too small, and it wasn't very expensive either, so that's the one I bought for her, and as soon as we got back to her cabin with it, she was in there folding up her clothes and finding the perfect spot for her new trunk. We're still looking for the perfect chair... one with personality that isn't too old-lady looking.

Our next-door neighbor up at the lake is selling her house there, and I've arranged to buy a day-bed from her, which will be C's bed for her cabin. Hopefully, that house will be selling soon (she's had lots of prospective buyers coming through), and then we'll be able to move the bed from her house to C's cabin. We've had an air mattress in C's cabin since last year, waiting to be replaced with the perfect bed with enough personality for Miss C.

When we all had dinner at our house on Saturday night, we invited our next door neighbor to join us. G has lived up at the lake for thirty years now.... starting out as a weekender, then living there full time when her husband retired from his job. But now her husband has passed away, and she's getting too old to be taking care of the house and that waterfront property, so she's moving to Louisiana to be near to her family. G brought a homemade peach cobbler for dessert and she taught us how to play Double-Nine Dominoes. Great game...... we play Dominoes a lot, but always used our Double-Six set. We're hooked on the Double-Nines now, so we'll have to get a set of those.

While we were up at the lake, Craig Biggio had his 3,000th hit for the Houston Astros, so C was thrilled about that. She calls her cabin Biggio's Bungalow, in honor of her favorite baseball player. We have a television up at the cottage, but we still haven't gotten an antenna for it yet, so we don't get to see any baseball games while we're up there. We're too busy looking at the lake, I guess.... not to mention the chores that always seem to be there.

I was careful not to touch a shovel filled with dirt this time....... my right foot is still hurting, and my appointment with the foot doctor is this Thursday. Just by the way my foot feels, and the way it's hurting, and with everything I've read on the Internet sites, I just know he's going to tell me that the only thing that will cure this is the surgery. I'm trying not to think about it.

My friend F (up in NY) called this afternoon, and that was a nice surprise. I told her how much I've thought of her since I've had this foot problem..... with everything she went through with her own medical problems last year, this foot thing seems to be so very minor. Without a doubt, I will be saying over and over to myself It's only my foot, it's only my foot. In the grand scheme of the universe, this is just so small, when I stop to consider all that she had to endure last year.


Pajama numbers...... 983 pajamas, as of today. The NY office sent me four boxes of pajamas-- 95 pajama sets, but those aren't counted in my own collection numbers. The NY office received thousands upon thousands of pajamas, donated by one of the major northeastern corporations, so they spread the pajama-wealth and sent some to each of the Chapter presidents. A local volunteer has offered to make slippers to give away with each of the pajama sets, and I'm looking forward to meeting that nice lady at the end of this month. And a local Girl Scout troup will be collecting pajamas for our Houston Chapter, once school starts again in mid-August. Little by little, volunteers continue to surprise me.

And speaking of presidents...... one of our lake neighbors told my husband not to be surprised to find himself nominated for President of the Community Board up at the lake. My husband is now giving that some serious thought........ he will only run for the position if he's prepared to do what needs to be done to bring some good and worthwhile changes to the community.

We're getting back into the routine here, which is very different from the lake routine. No ducks to feed (the ducks are now waiting by our back porch in the mornings for their pieces of bread)... no egrets and herons landing on the bulkhead and the boatdock. We don't watch the sunsets here, like we do at the lake. And fireworks.... both my husband and C's dad bought fireworks for the weekend, which are legal up in the lake country..... they bought the bright pretty ones, not the noisy ones, so that was the entertainment for both Friday and Saturday night up at the cottage.

And today is a Monday..... and I've been so used to not having a television to watch for the last six days that I totally forgot to turn on the television here to watch Oprah this afternoon. I guess I was just too busy counting and sorting pajamas... I didn't even think of the time. That's another "lake thing" -- there is no set time up there.... it's just whatever time you want it to be.