Summer vacation?

The past month has offered some challenges.

My son suddenly arrived to stay with us, first at camp, then in our guestroom after camp needed to be occupied by Sam’s son and his family. My son’s visit was open-ended – it would last as long as needed while he shopped for a condo of his own. And he has two cats. He moved himself and his cats in to his new place in Portland, Maine, a few days ago. There were a lot of extra logistics and new situations, including a heat wave, and the illness of one of his cats. But on the whole, nothing but gratitude for how everyone handled the situation. And a successful outcome! The cat regained his health, and my son is currently in his new place!

I’ve had some health ups and downs. Most recently, my doctor prescribed a medication that caused my electrolytes to drop suddenly. So in addition to the above, I had to get blood drawn three times to check them. Luckily, she quickly determined the cause, I stopped the medication, and my electrolytes obediently went back to a normal range.

Our Senate candidate, whom I’ve written about before, had to drop out. I won’t get into the messy details. Only to say it really hits home when you know his family and friends going way back. This was a shock to the local community and the state has had to scramble to determine how to choose a new candidate. I think things are well in hand though, even though we’ll miss a critical meeting due to …

Going away to Vermont for a few days to join my sister, her family, and a few of my sibs on a vacation. While my every day life does feel mostly like a vacation, being retired, and enjoying lots of leisure time, I am looking forward to a get-away-from-it-all vacation. A real change of scene. We are scrambling at the moment to get the gardens well watered and cared for, because we’ll be gone for four days.

The onions are very lush and green at the community garden. The black-eyed susans are in bloom, and the cone flowers just starting. There are numerous sunflowers growing tall, offspring of last year’s massive stalk. I just let the sunflowers grow up amongst the onions. I like the jungly look of it.

On the other hand, the second plot with the winter squash looks pretty bare still. Squash always takes awhile to get growing. I think this delicata is ready to take off soon. There is also butternut and Red Kuri there. The squash at home took a big hit from insect pests – or maybe an animal? – so I’m not sure it will survive. It’s currently under row cover.

Anyway, enough of worrying about plants and people for awhile. One thing my son’s visit helped me with was confirming a desire to simplify. I moved out of the large bedroom so he could move in, and honestly when he left, I barely moved my stuff back. It feels really nice to have a clear desk, an almost empty nightstand, and no partly done projects lurking around. I’ll have to keep the focus on simplification when I get back because backsliding is so easy.