I have a new computer, and all of my old stuff is on it! Even those 30 shots of an English rose -- clear, blurry, and/or questionable. Love digital, but I don't sort out the good from the bad. I just dump them on the computer to store. You know... so they're safe. Bill's hand is recovering nicely. As of Friday, no more twice daily hydrogen peroxide baths. We've passed the two-week mark on daily antibiotic infusions. Two to four weeks remaining. Unfortunately, with the pick-line in, that means Bill can't get wet. (In case you missed the beginning of this story, here it is -- in a round-about way...) In February, we planned the summer with water in mind. Since the 24th of June, we've been waking up to kayaks, fishing boats, lobster boats, and motor boats on the Annisquam River.
With construction progressing on our addition, we moved out of our house as we flew to England on May 26th. Literally. We threw wet towels and toothbrushes on top of a 2-foot high pile of stuff on the dining room table as we scrambled out the door at 6 a.m. to catch a plane. Everything from the kitchen and living room, which are being renovated, has been shoved into the dining room and toy room, which will remain unchanged.
We came back from England and checked into a hotel for two weeks, including the last week of school. While in England, the builders took over the house, gutted some of the rooms, and put up framing that now marks the new rooms inside. Now, it looks more like the architectural drawings than it looks like our old house.
In the three houses we have owned, we have had add-on plans for "some day." Twenty years later, this is some day. With the scope of work, we couldn’t try to live in the house.
We decided to rent a house for the summer on Cape Ann in Gloucester, a town about 40 minutes or so from our house. It feels like it’s a flight away: watching lobster boats with seagulls chasing them early in the morning, seeing the Annisquam lighthouse flashing at night, structuring our days around high and low tide. It has a bit of an island feel to it. Really, we are living unstructured days around the tides.
We could have chosen to rent an apartment inland, but we chose something different. A summer adventure. After all, today is some day.