Encore!

The month-old picture of William following his graduation is brought to you by yesterday's thunderstorm, which knocked out our Internet service, though fortunately not our power.

It's been a long time since I updated the blog, although there's been a lot going on since mid-June. I now longer have any grammar-school students in the house, just young men, one making his way in the work world (and trying to move up in it), one entering high school, and one entering middle school.

We've taken some of our favorite excursions, to the Castle In the Clouds, to some of the local ice cream makers, to Connecticut, where we visited the submarine museum and Fort Griswold and some fun eateries.

And, of course, the beach. It's that time of the year; in fact, two weeks of swimming lessons started today. William wanted to do junior lifeguard training, but the class was cancelled due to lack of interest. Instead, he and Danny are now taking the same class, both at the highest level the town offers.

Summer projects are in the works, including a back deck.. The deck needs to be done by Karen's birthday, because she wants to have her birthday dinner on it. She's been waiting a long time, so we're working away to make it happen. Right now, that work consists of digging four-foot-deep holes in our rocky back yard for footings. After the inspector inspects the holes (to make sure they're deep enough—some people cheat), we have to fill each with 200 pounds of concrete. Then we can actually start building the deck itself.

Karen's trailer is also on the agenda for the rest of the summer. We're trying to get it reasonably waterproof and road-worthy by the 11th of September, so we can take it camping at a nearby campground where we meet up with our fellow trailer builders each year. It won't look pretty by then, but at least it will finally put in an appearance.

That's keeping us busy enough, and of course, Karen and Tom are working, I'm picking up some freelance voiceover work and working on my first album of songs, and managing the schedules for everyone. With all there is to do, I think that Summer will fly by.