Carpe Diem: Cramming, part 2

Sunday of the trip, we woke and started cleaning house. Brother John and his wife Amy, her dad Keith and his wife Pat were due in. It was a beautiful day, not too humid, so we planned to be out on the deck for most of the visit.

Beth had invited me to go to a show with her that day too, so I helpd clean, then scooted off with her in the early afternoon. We saw "Girls Night Out", a musical that's making the community theater rounds. It was fun, I can recommend it. probably better to do an evening show with a drink to encourage you to sing along with 'we are family' and the other songs they showcased. (What is it about Rochester and that song? I seem to catch a performance of it every summer that I'm there.)

Got back just in time to sit down to an early dinner with the guests, then we hung out in the backyard. Amy headed back with Keith and Pat, and the rest of us went inside to watch some of John's recent TV appearences. Dad enjoyed seeing them. Greg then took Dad home, and we ended up out in the kayaks. Fun, full day!

Got up early the next morning to make a donut run. Donuts Delight is back in business, y'all!! Corner of Culver and Empire. That had been our Sunday breakfast for years - making a donut run after church. A couple years ago, the Malleys closed it down after trying to find a buyer. They finally sold it to Salvatore's Pizza, and now it's a combined pizza place and donut shop. John wanted to make the run, so I got him and Gavin up at 7 and off we went. Took the lake route there, I forget that John doesn't have such recent time in Rochester as I do. When we're all together, it seems to me like we all live there. But he was noticing recent changes. Saw more on the way back as we drove past Kodak Park, where some of the buldings John worked in for a couple summers are now gone. (Dynamited and removed to cut the property taxes!)

The donuts were as we had remembered. I tried to have only one, but had half of another. And then, yep, this is why I don't have donuts and coffee for breakfast anymore - the sugar rush followed by the crash. Ecch. Felt awful all morning! But boy, they tasted good.

Ran around the rest of Monday getting things in the mail, then zoomed over to my house to meet Andrea's brother and a friend of his - they were taking her old butcher block table and 8 chairs, then her brother returned for my couch, coffee table and dining room table - they'll serve as furniture for his daughters as they outgrow their little things. It was good to have that stuff go - but there was still the Salvation Army pile. Now what? Well, the neighbors across the street came to chat. It transpered that their neighbor's church has a rummage sale in Sept. Arrangements were made, and on Tuesday, Lutherans came with a van and took the rest of the stuff with profuse thanks on both sides. A miracle! Now the house is almost ready for the renter to move in.

Tuesday, I also visited with Dad again. Finished up the game of Risk that Gavin & Andrea and I had been playing for a day. Then headed for the airport.

Fast, fast trip. I thought I'd feel more regret at giving up the house. I really had thought, on moving there in Jan 07, that I'd make a life there. So that part didn't work. But I didn't feel too upset, I wish I could have made the improvements I had planned. And wish it had sold outright. But I'm OK with things as they are there.

Here, in California, that's another matter. I want to feel like I'm making progress with my life and I don't. This will need some thinking and reframing and goal-setting to conquer, I believe. Meanwhile, here are some more pics: