It's a very fine line.

Every once in a while something happens to make you realize what a fine line we walk between being among the living and being among those on the other side. I don't mean the "there was a terrible accident this morning and it's on the same route that I take to work and oh my gosh that could have been me if I had left the house just a little earlier" type of happening. I mean an incident that is so close that you can almost hear the grim reaper as he slips on past.

We had rain today. Lots and lots and lots of it. I think "teemed" is the word to use for the rain we had. It has been "teeming" lots lately. Actually, we have had some kind of rain almost every day since May. That kind of rain makes the soil around the roots of trees quite loose and often causes trees to topple. Occasionally we can hear trees cracking or thundering to the ground in the woods around us.

We went for our walk tonight. In the rain. With our umbrellas. On our way home we saw Paul's uncle collecting his mail from his mailbox and we stopped to talk. We chatted for a few minutes and as we chatted he started to drift towards the middle of the road. We continued to chat until we heard a car coming down the road. "Better go, John. Car's coming", we said and we turned around and continued walking down the road. We walked for about 50 feet and a few seconds when we heard a tremendous sound like a gun shot. We looked at each other as several options went through our heads as to what the noise could be when Paul pointed up the road. There, lying across the road was a large tree. Exactly where we had just been standing and chatting. If that car had not come down the road forcing us to say a premature goodbye we probably still would have been there chatting. And been quite crushed. Very scary thought.

Is it divine intervention? Do we have a guardian angel watching out for us? Or is it all just a lucky coincidence? I really don't know. I do know that I am very glad that we were just on the right side of that fine line tonight.

It takes talent and hard work, but it also takes heart.

Kara is a born competitor. From the moment she was born I knew it. In the very beginning there was that competition to see who could stay up the longest at night. Kara almost always won.

Whatever she did, she always wanted to do it better than anyone else. If she ever got into anything where she knew she just absolutely did not have the talent to be the best, like ballet.., she would leave it and go on to something else. She was 10th in her large graduating class in high school. While I would have been over-the-moon ecstatic with being the 10th in my small class, I know she would probably have preferred to have been first.

When she was in Junior High she joined the cross-country team. Her placement was dead last. But she knew with perseverance, hard work and heart she could do better. Maybe even be first. Her goal was always to just beat that person in front of her. Just like the little engine that could, her mantra was "I think I can. I think I can." When she was in high school she joined the track team, also...always keeping her eye on that person in front of her. By the time she was a senior there was no one in front of her. She held the school record for the mile and the two mile run. The two mile still stands after 19 years. The mile was just broken this year.

Knee trouble and mother-hood have kept her running at a minimum for a number of years. But last year she decided to something she had never done, a triathlon. With her perseverance of old she has dedicated herself to being the very best she can be. She has gotten up at dawn to do swim work-outs in the Y pool and at Thoreau pond. She has pounded the pavement. She has injured herself and had to tone down her running for a while. She has taken spin classes and anyone who has taken spin classes knows that is really really really really hard work. And she has still managed to take care of her house and children with no blips.

This weekend it all came to fruition. Her moment of reckoning. And she ROCKED!! Way to go, Kara. I don't know if I have the distances exact, but she swam for 1/2 mile (which she said was WAY to easy), then biked for 15 miles, then hopped off the bike and ran for 5 miles. And she finished it all with a smile. She was fantastic. She did it in 1:27:33...a great time for a first-timer. Her placement was 330 our of 2698. The age range in this triathlon was 14 - 79. Yes, 79 years old. There was a tiny little, sort of leaning-to-one-side lady of 79 who did the WHOLE thing. I mean...EVERYTHING!! I would probably pass out if I swam half a mile, but she did it all. What an inspiration to those who think they really can't do something.




Congratulations to Kara. She's a winner and we are so proud of her. She will NEVER be last at anything. Want to see pictures? Click on the Gallery next to this post and then click on the Kara's Triathalon gallery. And remember, you can click on picture to make it larger and easier to see.

Changes

It was a small item in the local paper 36 years ago. A 2x4 inch column. The heading was simple. "Veterinary Hospital To Open". The first line read:

"Dr. Paul J. Cortesi announces he will open his office for the practice of small animal medicine Monday at the Torrington Veterinary Hospital, 269 University Drive."

Thirty six years later the item on the internet is equally simple:

"Veterinary Practice for Sale in CT. Litchfield County Connecticut. Small Animal Practice. This smaller practice is well established and has a loyal following. The practice is located in a good sized town and it has a lot of growth potential. The selling doctor is willing to work part-time and/or do relief work for the buyer. The seller wishes to lease the facility initially. The facility is attractive and has ample parking."


After 36 years Paul has decided to sell his business, his baby. He is only selling the "business". He will keep the real estate. He will work part time for the new owner but after many years of being on call every weekend and evening he can finally go wherever he wants without being tied to his beeper.

When we bought the land in 1973 we were so young. Kara had just turned one and we had very little money. The land was a cow pasture on a hillside. Paul was told that he was crazy to think that he could actually build a drive way on that hillside. He found someone, a crusty old-timer, who said it could be done.

The driveway went in, despite all those nay-sayers. Never tell Paul he can't do anything. It only makes him more determined.


With the driveway in we were able to excavate a hole in the cow pasture and so began our first step to becoming a "self-employed small business owner" and the realization of Paul's dream.



It was hard work. Paul and my brother, who was staying with us for the summer, put in long, hard hours of manual labor. I don't think Henry knew what he was in for when Paul said "Hey, why don't you stay with us for the summer. I could use a little help".


With our very limited budget we bought a modular home for $18,000 and had it modified to accommodate the necessities of an animal hospital. And so we opened for business. And we waited. And waited. And waited for the phone to ring. It didn't ring much in those early days. Every ring would bring shouts of "The phone! The phone! It's ringing!" It took years and years of hard work, sacrifice and living on very little money to build up a good clientele. The early years are spent mostly weeding out the dead-beats and the ones who have been banned from all the other veterinary hospitals in the area, for good reason. Paul has worked hard to build a good clientele. He always says that he has the best clients in Torrington. It also helps if they share his political views.

Things have changed in 36 years. The hospital has had 2 name changes. Paul went through a long string of receptionists before he found the right one who could endure his quirky personality. We FINALLY feel somewhat financially secure. We no longer pray for the phone to ring. We often pray that it doesn't.


The ugly barren driveway that we were told could not be built has been allowed to grown in. Our clients tell us that they feel like they are entering a park when they come to the office. We like that.


We have planted trees and flowers and built stone walls around the office. With a lot of sweat equity the office has lost the sterile, new look and instead looks like it belongs with the land. It looks loved. It is.

So...we will see what happens with our new venture. Maybe no one will be interested in buying a solo practice and our life will continue unchanged. If we are able to sell the business our yearly income will show a significant decrease. That's a little scary. But the trade-off will be more free time. Once I retire Paul and I will be under the same roof all day long. That is even scarier.

It's been a wonderful and sometimes bumpy ride but I never thought it would go so fast.

Chipping away at my list

I can cross #4 off the list of things I want to do this summer: "Have lazy suppers of cold pasta salad and iced tea in frosty glasses with a slice of lemon and a sprig of mint." Today was warm enough to almost classify as summer. It was even a little muggy. I made a cold pasta salad for supper and iced tea in frosty glasses with that slice of lemon and sprig of mint. We even enjoyed our first vegetable from the garden...tender zucchini and yellow squash. It's been a loooong time coming but it finally felt seasonal today. And that felt so very good.

Paul spent the day painting the outside of the office. Which meant it was nice and quiet for me around the house. I spent most of the day hauling mulch to my gardens. Out of all my garden jobs the one I hate the most is lugging that mulch around. So heavy. So time consuming and soooo boring. But things do look so much better when you are finished. I ran out of mulch so the job is far from done. I also did some weeding and finished planting the plants that I bought in June but was never able to put in the ground because of the inability to find a dry day.

Around 4 o'clock I looked up to see a blur hurtle past me. It was Paul, in a hurry. As he zipped past I heard him say to me, "I'm going to a tea party downtown....Coe Park. Do you want to come?" I told him that I would let him represent the family. It's not that I don't share his political beliefs.......most of them I do. I just do not like and never have liked mass gatherings. I prefer to think by myself rather than get caught up in the excitement of mass psychology. So Paul changed into a "right to bear arms" t-shirt and was on his way. They got heckled by some "little liberal kids across the street" but otherwise it was pretty tame. I enjoyed my quiet time yanking weeds and planting plants. I heard a helicopter fluttering by overhead and briefly wondered if it was Life Star headed to Coe Park.

We are expecting some showers today and tomorrow. I hate to say it, especially after those 40 plus days of rain, things are starting to get dry and we really will welcome the rain.

Entering blogdom.

My husband is not a blogger. At all. Not a blogger, but he IS an e-mailer. Anyone "lucky" enough to be on his e-mail list will get inundated with e-mail.....lots of it. Most of it of the political variety. The ultra right-wing conservative variety. I keep telling him that most people just don't read that and keep hitting delete delete delete when they see it coming.

The other night, Kara, in an effort for him to reach a broader audience, went to work and very nicely set up a blog for him. So Paul has officially entered the blogger world. We'll see how this goes. Those who know Paul will see that the blog is totally "him".

Kara.......you are truly very funny. You make me laugh!

If you dare.............click here.

Lawn carnage

One never knows what strange carnage may be lurking in their lawn. I found a bit of the macabre on our lawn this evening. I was walking through my lawn and came across a dead bird. That in itself is not strange. With two cats whose favorite sport is hunting, dead birds are a frequent sight. "Kill 'em and leave 'em" is their motto. This bird looked different, sort of smooth and straight, almost as if someone had pulled him through a nylon stocking. There was loose dirt neatly mounded around him, making it look as if something had tried to bury him. And his beak appeared to be almost headed down into a hole.

I did what I usually do with cat-kill, I picked it up and tossed it far into the bushes. But when I looked back to where the bird had been I noticed something else strange. Where the head and beak had been there appeared to be a tunnel heading underground. Curious as to what might have made that tunnel, I dug down and came across a beetle that looked very much like this................................

At dinner I asked Paul if he had ever heard of a beetle that buried birds. "Midge," he said with authority. "A little beetle can't bury a big bird. He might have been eating it but he certainly wasn't burying it. No". Being the skeptic that I am I believe half of what I see and none of what I hear so I immediately headed to the internet to do a search on "beetle that buries dead birds". And, ah ha, I actually came up with something right away. There was an article that was just written in the Boston Globe.

There is a beetle, about an inch and a half, called the American Burying Beetle that buries dead carcasses, some of them as large as a pheasant. It is quite rare and scientists had thought it had pretty much disappeared but they have just found some in Rhode Island and Nantucket. This beetle looks very much like the one I saw today. As soon as I read about it I hustled outside to see if I could find to make a positive ID (sounds like a crime scene,doesn't it?) but the culprit had taken off.

Have any of you ever seen one of these grave diggers?

Friday visitors.

Hallelujah!! Today I actually accomplished one thing on my list of 18 things I want to do this summer. I hung my laundry out on the line and it, yes it really did, it did get DRY! Today was a perfect drying day. And it was a perfect day. One of those 10 best days of the year. One of those days that have become so rare. Blue sky. Warm sun. Low humidity. And to make the day perfect, we had some of my favorite guests come to visit for the day. Brett and Megan and the boys decided to drive over for the day to visit with Paul's mother. It was so good to see them all.


The boys went straight for the trucks, of course. "I 'memember' these," they said.



Even Egon seemed to sense that this weather was an unusual phenomena that was not meant to be squandered. He enjoyed lying on the cool, and probably tick-laden, grass and thinking of squirrel chases.




The boys enjoyed doing boy things. Elliot shot lots of "3 pwointers". Albion rode around on his horse while gulping cups of "memonade". (he likes drinking from paper cups)


There is something about bridges that always attracts the wee ones. They can use up a lot of time tromping back and forth across a bridge, especially if it is wooden and makes lots of noise. Seems like the whole family was enjoying it.


Then grammie had the bright idea to show them how much fun it was to throw stones in the water and see the BIG splash. My bright idea led to me spending the next 20 minutes pulling stones out of the water and laying them on the bridge for them to toss back into the water. Oh, the laughter. But I told them that if I saw one snake in that water the game was o-v-e-r.

We enjoyed two meals on the porch with them, both with the porch windows wide open....ALL of them! As the sun was dipping behind the hill they putt-putted out of our driveway and back to Rhode Island. It was a good day.


It often seems that when my little people leave I find a little trace of something around the house that reminds me that they were here. And makes me miss them.

Wishful-thinking list.

Things I REALLY want to do this summer but haven't:

1. Wear shorts and a short sleeve shirt for 2 weeks in a row (but at this point I will be happy with one week)
2. Leave all the windows in the house open as wide as a barn door 24/7.
3. Eat breakfast on the porch with every window open and smelling the WARM morning air.
4. Have lazy suppers of cold pasta salad and iced tea in frosty glasses with a slice of lemon and a sprig of mint.
5. Open the pool.
6. Go swimming.
7. Sweat.
8. Complain about the heat.
9. Sit outside at night without a sweater.
10. Turn on the fans.
11. Sit on the lawn in my Adirondack chair under the shade of the black walnut tree and enjoy my morning tea while listening to the hawks' cry as they circle above me.
12. Mow the lawn without getting stuck in the mud.
13. Hang my clothes out on the line and have them get DRY.
14. Go out for ice cream because I want to cool down.
15. Hear the weather man say "It's going to be a hot one out there today."
16. Hear the weather man say "Get ready for the 3 H's."
    
17. Put out my outdoor furniture.
18. Settle down on the porch or in my lounge chair under a shade tree with a good book and a tall glass of ice cold lemonade.

The first 17 things I haven't been able to do because, aside from 3 warmish sunny days, it has been either too rainy or too cool. The last thing I haven't done because I just haven't had time. And I want to have that little bit of time so badly. I think I will get number 18 accomplished before the summer is over, but with the way the weather has been going, I'm not sure about the other 17. I may have to wait until next summer.

A good holiday weekend.

Waking up this morning was really good. There was a cool breeze gently blowing the curtains. The breeze carried the scent of freshly mown grass and newly raked hay. The sky was bright blue and the sun was shining shining shining. It hasn't been this good in a long time. The perfect day. It reminded me of being a little girl back on the farm.

What to do on such a beautiful day? The possibilities are endless and there was a whole wonderful day ahead of us. Paul has always wanted to go to The Elephant's Trunk, an antique/flea market in New Milford. There are many many vendors who set up their booths outside in a large meadow. If you go betwen 5:45 and 7am the admission is $20.00 a person. After 7am it is $2.00. There is no way I am going to pay $20.00 to drag myself out of bed at dawn. Later in the morning for $2.00 was fine with me.

We got lots of exercise walking and walking and walking through the many many vendor's stalls. We saw lots of weird stuff, like the man walking out with a stool that was made of cow hide and had cow's hoofs for legs. WHY??

I came across this old 75 rpm album................

............"South Pacific". We had that EXACT same album on the farm. It was one of those that I used to play over and over until I knew every song by heart. I can remember dancing around the dining room (oh so pathetic) pretending I was Mary Martin "washing that man right out of my hair" or the sailors loudly singing about "Blooding Mary". I knew every word by heart.

I passed that one by without buying it but I did buy a couple of old blue glass bottles that make great vases, an old toy truck for $1.00 and a Toledo Jewelry brooch.


We also bought this but we don't know what it really is? Paul bought it for $3.00 because it reminded him of something that my grandfather would make. It is carved out of wood and is 3 and a half inches long. It almost looks like a mini letter opener. Does anyone have any ideas as to what it might be??

We were hungry and hot after traipsing around in that field so we started looking for places to eat on the way home. Taco Bell?? Sorry, the worst place in the world to eat. Subway? Too boring. Hot dog stands?? Nah...even more boring still. Paul took a quick turn up a little side road in Warren and we came across this little deli sitting high up on a bank.....


Good choice. I had a great tomato, mozzarella, lettuce with vinnagrette sandwich on a big chewy grinder roll. Perfect.


We took our food and sat down next to a window that put us up high and had a great view. Oh yes, this is much better than Taco Bell.

We came home and Paul split wood while I went to sit with my mother on the cool shaded patio at the nursing home for a nice visit. It was a great end to a nice, quiet 4th of July weekend.



And a happy birthday (July 3) to my favorite little brother. He started the holiday off with a bang 57 years ago and he's still doing it. And I hope he'll be doing it for many many many many more years.

Life is.........well, life is wet wet wet in the rain forest.

We had three days of sun and now we are wallowing in gloom and rain and drear once again. This has to be the absolute strangest summer I have EVER experienced. Will this wet ever end? We are at the point now when a mere brightening of the sky qualifies as "sun" and makes everyone run to the windows screaming "Sun, sun..the sun's coming out". If we don't blink we might catch a glimpse of something up there trying to peer through.

I don't even wait for the sun to come out anymore to work in the gardens. I am getting used to working in the rain and sloshing around in the mud. The only thing that rather creeps me out is that I have a feeling that this wet weather is kind of "snakey" weather. You know the stories of how when there is flooding the snakes come swarming out of the wetness to seek dry land. I just KNOW that they are all squirming around the wet places near the house planning to come out en masse.

I don't look when I weed for fear I will see something wriggling. I just close my eyes, reach in and pull. I admit that may be dangerous because I may end up pulling something other than a weed. Yesterday I spent the day weeding a spot that just screams the word "S_N_A_K_E"!!!


These are all weeds that have multiplied fiercely in this new tropical rain forest of ours. Beyond the weeds is a rushing stream, normally dry at this time of the year. I have a vision of snakes being washed down from the farmer's land above and hanging upon the rocks in the stream and then maniacally squirming their way to drier land...and my waiting hand. Does not this look like a haven for snakes? The thought did not leave my mind the whole wet time that I was weeding. After dinner last night I sat down on the porch to read while I listened to, what else, the rain on the roof. I dozed off. Just as I dozed off I had a dream. I dreamed that there was a snake wriggling across the pages of my book as I sat on the sofa. eeewwww. It was so real. I jumped so high with fright that I woke myself up.

What are the two states that don't have snakes? Hawaii and Alaska? Maybe I should consider a move there.

But a little good news. The forecast for Sat, Sun and Mon is sunny and in the 70's. Maybe we will get that cover off the pool yet this summer.