jimsjournal
It's still summer -- 08/29/04

This morning's Sunday paper is stuffed with back-to-school advertising and articles filled with advice on how to pack nutritious lunches for school and the importance of being sure your kids get enough sleep and their backpacks aren't too heavy and....

But it is still summer.

This has been a relatively cool and wet summer. (Please note the "relatively" in there... I have certainly been frustrated at times when attempting to run because the heat and humidity had just melted my energy away, but the temperatures have not been bad at all if you were not trying to run four miles at mid-day.) We've not been washed away, but lawns did not take on that brown crunchiness of August and gardens have not needed much watering at all.

The heat in Washington when we were there for JournalCon was a bit daunting -- that Friday and Saturday it was in the nineties, easily ten degrees hotter than it had been in Rhode Island, although that Sunday was relatively cooler compared to the start of the weekend. It almost seems as if summer followed us back from JournalCon. Most of the week had high temps in the seventies but this weekend has been perhaps the hottest of the summer.

I was working in my garden yesterday -- doing stuff I should have done a couple of weeks ago but there was too much rain at mid-month and then I was at JournalCon -- weeding, pulling up the remains of the bean and pea plants, etc., and planting seeds for a possible fall crop. Yes, I know, I should have done this two or three weeks ago... I did the weeding and pulling yesterday, today will be the planing. There's a chance of a crop before frost... two or three kinds of lettuce, some radishes, maybe some more beans and peas.

My spring and early summer harvests -- lettuce and beans and peas -- were fairly good, but the later crops haven't done well at all. I got some nice zucchini in early August, but nothing since... and only a couple of cucumbers and no eggplant crop at all. And my tomatoes are not doing well either.

Six days since I last posted here -- well, I've been very busy with work -- and various social activities. Thursday night Jill and I went over to 2nd Story Theatre to see Arthur Miller's All My Sons -- starring Bob Colonna (a veteran R.I. actor and director) as Joe Keller. The 1948 movie version (must have come immediately after the theatrical version) had Edward G. Robinson in that role and I can remember seeing James Whitmore in that role in a television version in the mid-80's. Very powerful drama. Usually Jill and I have dinner at her favorite Japanese restaurant (Sakura on Wickenden St. in Providence) but earlier this year the 2nd Story Theatre opened the Downstairs Bistro downstairs (where else?) from the theatre (The theatre company was using the upstairs space over a restaurant -- when the restaurant closed, the theatre company bought the building and decided to reopen the restaurant as a way of supporting the theatre) and we decided to try it out. Based on recommendations from friends, I had been planning on ordering their pad Thai with chicken but when the waitress listed the specials, I had to try the chicken alfredo -- oh, that was so good! Chicken over penne pasta with a very, very light alfredo sauce with just a slight hint of lemon.

Jeremy got home from a camping trip on Thursday afternoon after having spent eleven days in New Hampshire with a bunch of his buddies. Half a dozen college-age males off in the woods for a week and a half. He did take some nice photographs of mountains and mountain streams splashing over boulders and sunsets over a lake... and a big picnic cooler filled with cans of beer.

Friday was my baby brother's birthday. Oh, okay, so when I was four and he was one, he was my baby brother... and when I was five and he was two, he was my baby brother... So even though I'm sixty-one now and he has just turned fifty-eight, he's still my baby brother. *grin*

And also on Friday night Nancy and I went to a going-away party for a niece (Mike's younger sister) who went off to college on Saturday. But even so... it's still summer.



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