Our Joe's Pond Association meeting on Saturday morning was very well attended. The business meeting had just begun when the rains came! If you haven't experienced heavy rain while at the JPA pavilion, you have a treat coming. It is LOUD under there. Even with the microphone, it was difficult to hear. The rain continued for a good portion of the meeting and provided some comic moments, but we all stayed reasonably warm and dry, so no harm done. The minutes will be posted on the website within a day or so - as soon as Fred can get to it.
     It was summer here today. The apple trees are in full bloom and most of our trees have all their bright new foliage in place. I have lilacs, apple blossoms and pansies - and a pot of Forget-me-nots courtesy of granddaughter Tangeni and her dad. I will transplant them out where there's plenty of moisture. We actually usually have lots of them in the back yard, but a couple of years ago we had Luke Persons ditch the area above our house and now our back lawn where the Forget-me-nots were is pretty dry and I'm not seeing any evidence of them this year. I'll look for another spot for them - perhaps up in the ditch where Luke left me some big boulders for "sittin' and thinkin'." It's very nice up there, but needs some paths smoothed out for easier walking. I've intended to do that, but where's the energy? I was talking to a friend in Cabot today who is about my age and we agree that we simply don't have the vigor any more for a lot of the things we used to enjoy - like gardening and volunteering - not to mention time. It takes longer to accomplish whatever we do attempt, so we're left not having the time to do all the stuff we'd like to. That's the reason we keep thinking time flies by faster as we get older - it just takes us longer to do things. I'm not complaining - just saying. At my age, I'm glad to be able to get out of bed in the morning. 
     That reminds me of Uncle Cliff Belknap who was actually my boys' great uncle on the Dimick side of the family. One of Uncle Cliff's favorite quips was, "I get up in the morning and check the obituary page in the newspaper. If my name isn't in there, I get dressed and have my breakfast."
     It was also Uncle Cliff who taught my boys that instead of swearing, they could say rapidly, "Cheese-and-crust-all-maggoty, caught-in-a-Somerville-ditch." 
     Well, middle son Bob often employed that little phrase and one day was overheard by one of his teachers at junior high - and he was sent home from school! Bob was not happy that even though he tried to explain, the teacher was convinced that what he heard was a string of oaths that warranted immediate disciplinary action.  Bob had a knack for testing teachers' patience.