Sometimes I get too caught up in a project I lose all track of time. That has happened today, and consequently, I haven't accomplished a lot but I've found out I need to stay focused.

The weather has been really strange today. I expected it to be solidly rain and gloom, but we've had a bit of everything and that's kept me fairly busy adjusting windows. For a while I thought it was getting colder really quickly, but then the sun came out and I was hot again - so now the thermometer outside my office is reading 70 degrees. No sunshine for the moment, but it's just momentarily behind a cloud bank.

The morning started off on a sour note. Fred was up early, as usual, and when I got up around 7:30, he warned me Woody, our cat, was putting up a big fuss to go outside but he was keeping him in because there was a strong odor of skunk in the garage and Woody was wanting desperately to get out there. The dumb cat was hit squarely in his face a couple years ago and we thought he might have learned a lesson, but apparently not. We kept him in and left the overhead door open and the smell gradually disappeared. I'm guessing the skunk may not have let go full force because it really wasn't very strong.

Then we got busy playing catchup after being away most of the day yesterday. In case any of you are interested, the new McDonald's in Littleton is now running much more efficiently than it was the first few days the new facility was opened a few weeks ago. We stopped for ice cream before we came home, of course, and going through the drive-through went very well this time.

There seemed to be lots of weekend visitors around wherever we went yesterday. At Hastings Store we saw several folks who were starting their holiday weekend early and had come to gather some supplies. There was a good assortment of baked goods, even when we were there in late afternoon.

Some folks were worried about the hurricane, Earl, messing up our weather, but they were determined to make it a good "last weekend of summer," no matter what. I guess that was a good bet, but it could have been a lot worse if it hadn't stayed off shore as much.

Fred went out this afternoon to mow our lawn. I heard him tell someone he'll be mowing just once more after this. We generally quit mowing earlier than most in case we get one of those years where there isn't much snow cover, the thatch made by the longer grass in the fall seems to protect the lawn from winter kill.

We don't mow under our apple tree this time of year - there are lots of apples on the ground that the deer come to eat. We like to think we're helping to give them a little extra food before winter comes. I pick up what we want to use for applesauce, pies, etc., and they can have the rest. There was a doe and her fawn there last night just before dark. The little guy was very curious about the flash from the camera, and you can see his mother patiently waiting for him further down the lawn. She had been feeding under the apple tree along with him, but then seemed to hear something up in the woods she became nervous about and left, but the young one wasn't ready to give up the sweet apples.

People are getting their boats and docks out of the water this weekend. We'll have some nice weather for a while yet, but it may be difficult to find a good weekend to get those jobs done and most of us here have had the unfortunate experience of waiting too long and having to take boats out during a snow storm. Not pleasant getting wet when it's that cold.

I mentioned that former Cabot resident and author Dorothy Sucher had passed away. Here is a very nice story written by Peter Dannenberg of Cabot: Dorothy Sucher Article

We hope you are having a safe and pleasant Labor Day Weekend.