June/July 2021 Island Trip – Day 7

Today was pretty relaxed. We slept in, and had an outrageous breakfast of fruit salad and ceviche omelets. My DH took measurements of Stella’s pad, and together we figured out that a ground level solid patio will work better than a raised deck around Stella. We also figured out that putting the awning away is a two person job, and did that this evening. I’ll miss having it deployed for the remainder of my trip, but that’s ok.

I spent a couple of hours today visiting with a high school classmate and her husband. The same one who’s taking care of her mom, working full time, and raising a teenager. Shortly after I arrived, another classmate and her husband dropped in. This second classmate has become cynical and sarcastic. For anything said in conversation, she had something negative or snarky to say. It was seriously unpleasant. I sort of enjoyed listening to the news of the day… Who’s working where, dating who, which kids are getting married… I new some of the names mentioned. There, ultimately, was an over arching feeling of gossip about the conversation as our snarky classmate added her authoritative her two-cents to everything. After Mrs. Snarky left, the conversation was better, but still somewhat fractured. Again, I conclude that I’ve lost my ability to ‘people.’

My DH got one side of the garden’s anti-deer fish-net fencing back up while I was gone!! We pow-wowed about the next run of fencing, and I’m more determined than ever to extract the actual deer fencing from under the fir tree. We took a look at the electrical that’s in the way of my wall demolition, and hatched a safe plan for handling it. We also bailed the washing machine, and he, with the appliance dolly, took it out of the lower barn and laid it down to finish draining. Our AN will use his stunning new tractor to put it in the truck to go to metal recycling next week.

We just came back in from enjoying the tips of our Island’s port fireworks display. I had zero idea we could see any of it from the property, 4.5 miles away. It was a delight!

Happy Independence Day! Don’t let the assholes erode our democracy! 🇺🇸