August Roars In

I did pretty well on posts last month. It wasn't because the month was busier or I had more to say. I did cheat a little. I found a way to assign a posting date, so even if I was late (which I was for the first three posts) I could make it appear I followed my schedule. Keep an eye open; I'll do that in the future if I need to. I also found some quiet hours and wrote a number of posts, then kept them ready for dropping in place. I need to do that more often.

I probably just felt more loquacious. It helps that my cousin Mary and brother Dave chimed in on a few of the posts. That gives me incentive to write more. (With apologies to my long-suffering steady readers; I value your comments too.)

In my defense, the last week was almost unreal. On Friday Darling got the house empty and arranged for a painter to come in and completely repaint the interior, including stripping the wallpaper from the kitchen and painting it. I wasn't keen on the idea, but, as she pointed out, if the house sells faster it is money well spent. That afternoon our lovely realtor told us the house was fine to show it as-is and leave the interior as a bargaining point. She posted it on Saturday night and by Sunday morning it had over thirty hits on-line. By the end of the week it had shown three times.

It is a beautiful house.

Darling, J, E and I all jumped in R's vehicle and drove to Michigan to see my Dad and brothers and their families. We left on Sunday morning: two days up, two days back, three days in the middle. Though the GMC Terrain is a lovely vehicle, it fell short on a few traveling features. First of all, though it boasts 32mpg on the highway, we didn't see anything close to that number. There is no separate temperature control for the rear passengers, so sometimes the people in the front seats froze in order for the two in the back to be moderately comfortable. The back seats don't recline, which would have been most welcome on such a long journey. Finally, though I could get the Bluetooth to connect for making phone calls (which we didn't want) I couldn't connect it so that I could play music through the car speakers. Oh, we could have used a few more chargers, although we managed okay with one in the front and one in the back.

Still, it was better than traveling in the Camry for that distance.

Everyone took turns driving, which was really nice. Though we managed the trip quite well, I still felt rushed. I only have so much vacation and the driving parts were not really fun or relaxing.

Dad looked fine and it was good to see him. It disturbs me that his nieces describe him as "cute" since to me he will always be a lean, mean fighting machine. Though I have to admit his hair was pretty soft and fuzzy, like a kitten.

It was good to see my brothers. Good to spend a little time with their families. All my nieces and nephews are awesome. I miss them all tremendously. I am having a tough time getting over that, actually.

And that's all I have to say today.