The Lake

We were up at the lake house this past weekend.... the weather was picture-postcard perfect for all the days we were there. Nice and sunny and warm all day long (low 80s) and just a little cool at night (high 60s).

The cats are so used to the lake house now..... it's just the drive that gets them a little upset--- ShadowBaby starts with the meows as soon as we leave the driveway. No matter how many times I tell him We're almost there.... -- he just doesn't believe me. By the time we get half-way there, however, he usually meows himself out. AngelBoy just curls up in his crate and sleeps-- he does, however, give a few half-hearted meows at the very beginning of the ride. And little Mickey Kitty (who is still as small as a female cat) just sleeps all the way, with not even a teeny meow coming from him. That may be because his little crate is on my lap for the entire ride. I wonder how quiet he'd be if he were in the back seat with the others.

The week before we got to the lake, there had been a storm which came in from the northwest (never a good thing). The waves came up over the bulkhead and washed out some of the dirt and grass (for the third time) on part of our property. We found a man who would do the job right away, and he came with a truck-load of dirt that he spread around with a pay-loader (I think that's what the machine is called)....... and then he came back with a truck-bed filled with sod. In less time than it would have taken my husband and I to shovel in a quarter of that dirt, this guy had both the dirt and the sod in place so it looked like nothing had happened. (Worth every blessed penny that he charged.) The only way to prevent the northwest winds from washing out the dirt on that side is to have that part of the bulkhead fitted with a concrete sidewalk. That's what our next-door neighbor has, and the only thing he gets from the northwest wind is a bunch of seaweed washed up on his concrete walkway, which he just puts in his burn-pile with the fallen branches.

Lake living. Always something to do. Just like here... always something. When you own a house, it usually works out that the house owns you.

Speaking of "always something...." -- we're already planning to have our Christmas party. We didn't have one last year, being that I had been sick with the flu (or walking pneumonia, swears a doctor-friend of ours). So this year, we're back on track with great plans for a big Open House holiday party. I've already written out the invitations, so they'll go out in the mail next week. This one will be fantastic..... but we say that about all our Christmas parties.

Thanksgiving is all set.... our usual group of close friends will be coming here, each of them bringing part of the meal. We haven't yet decided who will be bringing what, but that will be easy to work out in the next couple of weeks. The same group will be here for Christmas-- except for K and B, who will be in Egypt. They always take advantage of the lower prices for their overseas holiday-time travel, and they're marking the globe with their exotic trips. Last year, India... this year, Egypt. I don't know what they have planned for next year, but I'm sure they've already signed up with the tour group for their next adventure. They've asked us to join them, but I have to admit that their travel adventures are just a little too adventurous for me.

Speaking of adventurous.... I watched the first episode of "The Amazing Race" last night. I would have been out of the race already-- one look at that bicycle/high-wire contraption going over the ocean, and I would have been running in the opposite direction.