Island Update Ending August 1, 2004

Can it be that it is August already? This week started out pretty quiet with Monday a beautiful, peaceful and uneventful day. We got an early start on Tuesday with Cindy et al catching the 0615 boat. Everyone had something to eat at the Cafe going down the hill to the boat. What a busy place that is.

Wednesday began as a cold rainy day or at least that was the case in the morning. It sort of cleared up in the PM, but didn't get any warmer. Mom was busy cleaning and I finished building some small shelves in the pantry. In the evening we were off to a 5th Maine lecture "An Island at War Peaks - WWII" which was very good. On Thursday it turned out to be a beautiful day although it started to warm up a bit, good in some ways not in others. I tried to get caught up on paper work/phone calls/etc while Mom attacked the laundry getting ready for the next influx. She did play beano with the group up the street (a good place to get caught up on the island gossip) and I attended the 5th Maine Board meeting at night. Now wasn't that an exciting day?

What a busy busy day Friday was! We were up and showered and on the 0715 boat. We had breakfast at a nice place that Mom's hairdresser recommended. Then it was off to Home Depot, the Navy Exchange where we bought new hedge clippers with a long reach (not the ones I was after, but only cost half as much), then to the Commissary, lunch at the Sea Dog Brewing Co. in Topsham where we ate on the deck of an old mill that extended out over the Androscoggen River (very nice), then off to CVS for prescriptions with a short stop at a hardware store on the way. We caught the 1630 back and were pooped. We brought back 2 cart loads of stuff and there is still enough to fill another in the van. We have to make another tip to get the things we buy in the local grocery stores. Almost forgot, we got our first real home grown blueberries at a farmer's market in Brunswick, the first of the season.

Saturday was another super busy day. Seems like feast or famine around here. It started with the Peaks to Portland swim (2.4 miles). We hadn't read anything about it but the 0645 boat from Portland was packed so we quick like drove the golf cart up and found swimmers and their kayaks everywhere checking in. Found out the race was at 0830 so we rushed home to have something to eat. We saw them off at the appointed times of 0830 for the racers and 0840 for those who just wanted to swim the course. Next it was the island road race which we watched from the porch as usual. After lunch we did the house tour sponsored by the 5th Maine. Five great houses including the red tower house at Spar Cove on the back shore. Mom was a hostess there for half the tour. Anyway, we had a good time and ended up tired again. Blueberry pancakes for supper, a bit of TV and then we collapsed into bed.

Sunday started out as usual, 0815 Mass followed by our regular Sunday morning breakfast augmented by some hot fried dough Diana (a friend of ours) brought over just as we were finishing breakfast (very good), but were we stuffed when we finished. This afternoon we went to 2 open houses. The first was nice, but chopped up and in need of some design changes. The other was a dump! Both were priced way higher then they should have been and I suspect will never sell until the prices come down a lot. I also unpacked the hedge trimmer today and found one of the switches doesn't work. What a bummer.

That brings us to the end of another week. Tomorrow we will embark on what will probably be another fun filled and busy week and perhaps a bit warmer than we like.

Love, Mom and Dad