An almost perfect day
Hillary gave a great concession speech Saturday. Electoral-Vote.com has a pretty good post mortem on her campaign, as well as a link to an interesting proposal afoot for changing the way we elect presidents, which sounds sensible to me at first glance.
After weeks of chilly weather, most recently accompanied with persistent drizzle, summer broke out in a hurry this weekend -- sunny and into the 90s both days. Saturday was devoted to errands but yesterday we mowed the lawn -- a lengthy and sweaty undertaking, as this was the first time this year we'd done it, our yard has a hill and it was in the 80s before noon -- and then hiked over the hill to the pond. It's really a perfect place. The kids have a blast just playing in the water four hours, and Ben and I join them for a lot of that time, but there are lifeguards and a rope keeping them from deep water so we can relax when we're not swimming with them. There are tadpoles to catch, docks to jump off, sand to lie on and dig up, a lovely setting with tons of trees and grass... plus the nostalgia factor, since I grew up going to this pond and learned to swim there. We spend several hours hanging out, the kids met up with friends from school, I talked to their parents plus some old family friends and their kids, we enjoyed the sun and the water... what more could you wish for?
So it was a perfect afternoon, since I don't count he morning mowing or the later-afternoon visit with Ben's mom, which was not perfect but by n means unpleasant, though Ben is still agonizing over whether he should reveal to her that he is selling her house (or trying to anyway). She has said in so many words that if her house gets sold it would kill her, and she still believes that she's going back there (and keeps asking about it, over and over), so Ben is convinced that telling her the truth would send her into a major depression, rage and feelings of betrayal, which would be directed at him. But on the other hand, he's very uncomfortable continually lying and evading her questions, coaching friends and family not to discuss her house (i.e., enabling her fantasy that she is at this Alzheimer's place only temporarily), plus the facility's staff are urging him to tell her, so he's very torn. This is all exacerbated by her innate lifetime stubbornness and unmatched ability to not hear what she doesn't want to hear, even when presented with irrefutable evidence and arguments, despite being very bright and capable of analytical thinking. So this tension always pervades any meeting with her, even though he's gotten good at temporizing and changing the subject.
Forecast for tomorrow: more heat (it's supposed to hit 100 tomorrow), plus a memorial service for an old friend in Connecticut -- a bittersweet reunion with old friends from my newspaper life.
After weeks of chilly weather, most recently accompanied with persistent drizzle, summer broke out in a hurry this weekend -- sunny and into the 90s both days. Saturday was devoted to errands but yesterday we mowed the lawn -- a lengthy and sweaty undertaking, as this was the first time this year we'd done it, our yard has a hill and it was in the 80s before noon -- and then hiked over the hill to the pond. It's really a perfect place. The kids have a blast just playing in the water four hours, and Ben and I join them for a lot of that time, but there are lifeguards and a rope keeping them from deep water so we can relax when we're not swimming with them. There are tadpoles to catch, docks to jump off, sand to lie on and dig up, a lovely setting with tons of trees and grass... plus the nostalgia factor, since I grew up going to this pond and learned to swim there. We spend several hours hanging out, the kids met up with friends from school, I talked to their parents plus some old family friends and their kids, we enjoyed the sun and the water... what more could you wish for?
So it was a perfect afternoon, since I don't count he morning mowing or the later-afternoon visit with Ben's mom, which was not perfect but by n means unpleasant, though Ben is still agonizing over whether he should reveal to her that he is selling her house (or trying to anyway). She has said in so many words that if her house gets sold it would kill her, and she still believes that she's going back there (and keeps asking about it, over and over), so Ben is convinced that telling her the truth would send her into a major depression, rage and feelings of betrayal, which would be directed at him. But on the other hand, he's very uncomfortable continually lying and evading her questions, coaching friends and family not to discuss her house (i.e., enabling her fantasy that she is at this Alzheimer's place only temporarily), plus the facility's staff are urging him to tell her, so he's very torn. This is all exacerbated by her innate lifetime stubbornness and unmatched ability to not hear what she doesn't want to hear, even when presented with irrefutable evidence and arguments, despite being very bright and capable of analytical thinking. So this tension always pervades any meeting with her, even though he's gotten good at temporizing and changing the subject.
Forecast for tomorrow: more heat (it's supposed to hit 100 tomorrow), plus a memorial service for an old friend in Connecticut -- a bittersweet reunion with old friends from my newspaper life.
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